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SHELDON    JACKSON 


Samuel  Clinton  Jackson  and  Family.     1858. 
Sheldon.  Louise.  Mrs.  Sheldon  Jackson. 


Sheldon  Jackson 


Pathfinder  and  Prospector  of 
the  Missionary  Vanguard  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  Alaska 


By 
ROBERT  LAIRD  STEWART,  D.  D. 

Professor   in    the    Theological    Seminary    of   Lincoln 
University,  Pa.      Author    of"   The   Land   of 
Israel"  and  "  Memorable  Places  Among 
the    Holy   Hills" 


ILLUSTRATED 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming   H.   Revell    Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1908,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


SECOND   EDITION 


New    York:      158    Fifth    Avenue 

Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


F 


**  When  the  future  historian  writes  the 
religious  annals  of  this  backbone  of  our 
continent  (the  Rocky  Mountains)  he 
will  give  the  foremost  place  to  Sheldon 
Jackson,    the    pioneer    of    the     cross. 

**  I  had  rather  have  his  record  than  that 
of  the  most  brilliant  scholar  in  our 
great   pulpits    of  the    East." 

—  Theodore  L.  Cuyler. 


CONTENTS 

Introductory    ii 

I.  Ancestry — Birthplace — Early  Days    .       17 

II.  Preparation  Days — Academy — College 

— Seminary         .....       27 

III.  The  Choctaw  Mission  ....  40 

IV.  La  Crescent  and  the  Regions  Around  .  51 

V.  Rochester  and  the  Regions  Around      .  74 

VI.  The  Iowa  Forward  Movement      .         .  92 

VII.  The   Beginnings   of  a  Great  Midland 

Synod  .         .         .         •         •         •     123 

VIII.  Pioneer  Work  in  Colorado  .         .         .141 

IX.  Pioneer  Work  in  Wyoming  and  Mon- 

tana   17^ 

X.  Pioneer    Work    in    the  Territory  of 

Utah i93 

XI.  Pioneer    Work    in    New    Mexico   and 

Arizona      ......     219 

XII.  The  Beginnings  of  the  Woman's  Board 

OF  Home  Missions        ....     25^ 

XIII.  Pioneer  Work  Outside  the  Synod  of 

Colorado    ......     283 

XIV.  A  Summer  Vacation  and  Its  Outcome  .     308 

XV.  Extension    and    Development   of   the 

Work  Among  the  Exceptional  Popu- 
lation (1882-1885)     .         .         .         .326 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

XVI.  The  Formative  Period  of  Educational 

Work  in  Alaska         ....     346 

XVII.  Daybreak  in  Northern  Alaska    .         .     374 

XVIII.  The    Introduction   of   Siberian    Rein- 

deer into  the  Land  of  the  Eskimos  .     386 

XIX.  Strenuous     Labours    and    Memorable 

Events  (1895-1898)     .         .         .         .415 

XX.  Educational    and    Missionary    Work 

(1898-1908) 452 

XXI.  Summary     of     Labours     and    Results 

(1858-1908) 465 

Appendix 479 

Index 483 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facing  Page 

Samuel  Clinton  Jackson  and  Family  .        .  Title 

Sheldon  Jackson's  Birthplace     ....       20 

Presbyterian  Church  of  Esperance    ...       20 

Home  of  His  Childhood  and  Youth    ...       20 

Associates  and  Helpers        .....       28 

Filling  a  Midwinter  Appointment     ...       56 

Presbyterian  Church,  La  Crescent,  Minn.         .       56 

Presbyterian  Church,  Rochester,  Minn.    .         .       56 

Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Western 
Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Nebraska  and 
Wyoming      .......       85 

Map  of  Frontier  Line  of  Presbyterian  Churches 

in  1858  .......       92 

Emigrants   Crossing   the    Platte  in  Overland 

Days 94 

Site  of  Hill-top  Prayer-Meeting,  Sioux  City, 

Iowa      ........     100 

Missouri  River 100 

Trio  of  Presbyters       .         .         .         .         .         .100 

First  Presbyterian  Church         ....     100 

An  Indian  Attack  on  a  Frontier  Stage-Coach  .     1 14 

Pioneer  Missionaries  in  Colorado        .         .         .126 

Facsimile  of  Stage-Coach  Pass    .         .         .         .134 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Sheldon  Jackson  ....     148 


10 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Bearer  of  "  Good  Tidings  "  to  the  Miners 
ON  THE  Mountains  of  Colorado   . 

Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Arizona, 
Utah,  and  Montana 

Pioneer  Missionaries  in  Colorado,  New  Mexico, 
Oregon,  Washington,  Nevada  and  Cal- 
ifornia ....... 

Pueblo  of  Zuni,  New  Mexico       .... 

A  Trip  by  Ox  Cart 

The  Woman's  Executive  Committee  and  Board 
OF  Home  Missions 

Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  Notable  Superintendents  of 
Missions 

Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Alaska 

Facsimile  of  the  Heading  of  "  The  Rocky 
Mountain  Presbyterian  "     . 

Canoe  Trip  Along  the  Coast  of  Alaska     . 

Ice-bound  in  the  Arctic  Ocean  . 

Map  of  Alaska     ...... 

Presbyterian  Mission  Farthest  West 

Presbyterian  Mission  at  Point  Barrow 

Landing  the  First  Herd  of  Reindeer  in  America 

A  Reindeer  Herd         ..... 

The  P'amily  Team       ..... 

Westminster  College,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 

Sheldon  Jackson's  Fur  Suit  for  Summer  Use  in 
Alaska  ...... 

Sheldon  Jackson  ..... 

Mary  Voorhees  Jackson      .... 

Presbyterian  Mission  and  Industrial  Training 
School,  Sitka        ..... 

Map  Showing  the  Fields  of  Sheldon  Jackson's 
Labours,  1858-1908      .... 


164 
193 

222 
236 
236 

256 

283 
315 

322 

322 

322 

346 

378 

381 

393 

393 

393 
417 

422 
452 

452 

463 
466 


INTRODUCTORY 

THE  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
preeminently  the  golden  age  of  opportunity  and 
achievement  in  the  "winning  of  the  West." 

During  the  half-century  which  preceded  this  period,  the 
United  States,  by  purchase,  by  conquest  and  by  diplomacy, 
had  acquired  a  magnificent  domain  of  virgin  territory, 
which  extended  from  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  shores  of  Puget  Sound. 
Into  this  *'  New  West,"  then  an  unknown  and  almost  un- 
inhabited land, — a  land  of  mystery  and  desert  solitudes 
and  deadly  perils — a  few  resolute  settlers  had  gone,  fol- 
lowing the  trail  of  the  hunters  and  trappers,  in  the  stir- 
ring days  of  "  the  forties."  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury, however,  there  were  very  few,  even  of  the  most  ad- 
venturous of  these  forerunners  of  civilization,  who  had 
any  adequate  realization  of  the  vast  extent  and  boundless 
possibilities  of  this  princely  heritage. 

The  discovery  of  gold  on  the  Pacific  coast  in  1848  was 
a  divinely  ordained  event  which  directed  the  attention 
of  the  whole  nation  to  the  Far  West,  and  suggested  to  the 
men  of  action  and  intelligence,  whose  faces  were  stead- 
fastly set  towards  it,  the  possibility  of  an  overland  route 
to  the  goal  of  their  ambition  on  the  Pacific  slope. 

Such  a  way,  blazed  for  them  in  part  by  the  expedition 
of  Fremont,  was  made  over  plain  and  mountain  and  des- 
ert :  and  although  beset  with  hardshipn,  difficulties,  and 
perils,  which  to  us  seem  almost  incredible,  it  was  followed 
by  eager  prospectors  for  almost  a  decade,  with  scai'cely  a 

11 


12  INTRODUCTORY 

thought  concerning  the  boundless  wealth  and  resources 
of  the  vast  stretches  of  uninhabited  land  through  which 
they  were  so  laboriously  journeying.  In  the  year  1859,  a 
few  grains  of  glittering  gold  were  found  in  the  bed  of  a 
stream  near  Denver  :  and,  as  the  news  of  the  discovery 
spread  abroad,  there  was  a  wild  rush  of  adventurers  to 
this  new  El  Dorado,  whose  only  designation  for  a  time 
was  the  indefinite  term  Pike's  Peak.  Towards  this  ob- 
jective point  they  struggled  and  fought  their  way,  and 
then  scattering  to  right  and  left  explored  every  valley  and 
canyon  and  mountain  peak,  near  and  far,  in  their  eager 
search  for  gold. 

When  at  length  the  varied  resources  and  boundless  pos- 
sibilities of  mountain  and  plain  throughout  this  immense 
and  singularly  diversified  land  began  to  be  known  and 
developed,  the  restless  explorers  and  prospectors  were 
quickly  followed  by  a  resolute,  ever-growing  host  of  hardy 
pioneers  who  came  with  their  wives  and  little  ones  to  oc- 
cupy and  possess  it.  It  has  been  said  with  truth  that 
''nothing  is  more  sublime  in  history  or  more  divine  in 
Providence  than  the  movements  and  migrations  of  men 
that  have  made  or  do  make  up  the  nations  of  the  earth." 
Granting  to  each  of  these  great  historic  migrations  its 
full  measure  of  influence  and  importance,  it  may  be  con- 
fidently asserted  that  the  greatest  and  most  significant  of 
all  was  the  resistless  tide  of  immigration  which  swept 
across  the  Mississippi  River,  and  thence  onward  in  ever- 
increasing  volume,  for  more  than  a  generation,  until  it 
had  reached  as  its  utmost  bounds  the  border  of  "the  Great 
Sea."  This  was  the  last  migration  of  its  kind  as  well  as 
the  greatest,  for  here  the  farthest  limit  of  "the  westward 
course  of  emj)ire"  on  the  habitable  portion  of  the  globe 
was  reached. 

View  it  from  whatever  standpoint  we  may,  there  is 
something  indescribably  grand  in  this  steady  and  long- 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

continued  march  of  civilization.  It  is  a  matter  of  record 
tliat  immediately  following  the  completion  of  the  first 
transcontinental  railway,  the  national  advance  on  our 
western  frontier,  along  the  whole  line  from  British  America 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  not  far  short  of  sixteen  miles 
a  year.  Some  conception  of  the  significance  of  this  ad- 
-vance  may  be  obtained  from  the  records  of  the  Land 
Office  in  Washington  City  for  that  period.  During  one 
of  these  memorable  years  (1874-1875)  over  10,700,000 
acres  passed  from  the  possession  of  the  government  into 
private  hands.  In  this  allotment,  averaging  160  acres  to 
each  settler,  nearly  70,000  farms— the  equivalent  in  ex- 
tent of  three  states  the  size  of  Massachusetts— became  in 
a  single  year  the  property  of  the  men  who  had  seen  a  vi- 
sion of  the  coming  days  and  linked  their  destinies  with  the 
discoveries  and  developments  of  the  regions  beyond. 

To  meet  the  spiritual  wants  of  these  rapidly  forming 
settlements,  and  to  anticipate  the  evil  influences  which 
were  ever  present  in  force,  and  ever  active  in  their  midst, 
was  the  work  of  the  home  missionary, — the  evangelist 
of  the  frontier — and  never,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  was  an  emergency  so  pregnant  with 
influences  for  good  or  evil,  more  j^romptly  and  cour- 
ageously met. 

Much  has  been  written  in  praise  of  the  pathfinders,  the 
pioneers,  the  prospectors  and  preemptors  of  the  New 
West,  who,  with  compass  and  pick,  axe  and  rifle,  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  coming  hosts,  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  a  great  and  ever-growing  material  civilization  : 
but,  as  yet,  scant  justice  **has  been  done  to  the  work  and 
memory  of  the  "pioneers  of  the  cross,"  who,  unmindful 
of  the  glamour  of  the  gold  which  glittered  beneath  their 
feet,  or  the  wild  rush  for  sites  of  untold  prospective  value 
in  rapidly  growing  towns  or  mining  camps — held  steadily 
to  their  pm-pose  to  win  this  magnificent  empire  to  Christ: 


14  INTRODUCTORY 

and  so  to  make  it  the  home  of  a  free,  God-fearing,  intel- 
ligent and  law-abiding  people. 

The  annals  of  the  home  mission  work  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  during  this  eventful  period  are  full  of 
thrilling  incidenis  of  sublime  faith,  unswerving  fidelity, 
and  heroic  achievement.     Among  the  leaders  of  this  mis- 
sionary vanguard  were  ''men  of  renown"  such  as  Marcus 
Whitman,  George  F.  Whitworth  and  A.  L.  Lindsley  of 
Oregon,  Lewis  Hamilton,  the  pioneer  preacher  of  Colo- 
rado, David  Lyon  of  Minnesota,  Lancet  G.  Bell  and  A.  K. 
Baird  of  Iowa,  John  W.  Allen  of  Missouri,  Henry  S.  Lit- 
tle of  Texas,  Thomas  Frazer  of  the  Pacific  coast,  Timothy 
Hill  of  Kansas  and  the  Indian  Territory,  and  Sheldon 
Jackson  of  the  Eocky  Mountains  and  Alaska.     To  these 
men  of  rare  ability  and  discernment,  who  by  a  Divine 
selection  and  ordination  came  to  the  front,  as  occasion 
demanded  ;  and  to  others  of  their  kind,  who  afterwards 
stood  in  their  lot  and  completed  their  work,  the  Presby- 
terian Church  is  largely  indebted  for  the  prominent  place 
it  holds  to-day  in  the  vast  and  rapidly  developing  region 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River.     In  the  face  of  difficulties 
and  discouragements,  which  to  men  of  weaker  faith  seemed 
to  be  insurmountable,  they  "carved  presbyteries  out  of 
the  wilderness  and  erected  synods  before  the  foundations 
of  civil  governments  were  laid."     They  went  out  with 
the  hardy  self-reliant  pioneers  in  the  forefront  of  the 
"far  flung  battle  line  "  of  the  great  army  of  occupation  ; 
and  not  infrequently  some  of  them  were  found  a  long  way 
in  advance  of  it,  with  the  scouts  and  adventurers,  the 
prospectors  and  miners,  on  the  outmost  verge  of  civiliza- 
tion, amid  the  rough,  incongruous  element  of  the  trading- 
post,  the  cowboy  town,  or  the  mining  camp. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  work,  which  deals  with  the 
life  and  eminent  service  of  the  most  widely  known  and 
highly  honoured  of  these  fi-ontier  apostle's,  no  pains  have 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

been  spared  to  make  it  a  complete  and  accurate  history 
of  the  man  and  his  times.  It  is  the  story  of  a  busy,  ad- 
venturous, and  singularly  romantic  life,  more  wonderful 
in  its  details  and  actual  experiences  than  any  of  the  fan- 
cies which  give  life  and  colouring  to  the  works  of  fiction. 

In  this  undertaking  the  writer  has  had  the  cooperation 
and  hearty  approval  of  Dr.  Jackson  and  his  family,  who 
have  placed  at  his  disposal  all  the  data  in  their  posses- 
sion, including  official  records  of  his  work,  journals,  and 
memoranda  of  daily  events,  and  the  voluminous  corre- 
spondence of  nearly  fifty  years.  He  has  also  gathered 
from  the  personal  statements  of  more  than  one  hundred  of 
his  former  associates  and  fellow  labourers  who  are  still 
living,  much  valuable  material  which  has  been  woven  into 
the  body  of  the  work.  To  all  these  stores  of  helpful  in- 
formation may  be  added  the  personal  impressions  which 
have  come  through  comradeship,  for  a  time,  at  the  front, 
as  well  as  through  an  unbroken  interchange  of  friendship 
and  sympathetic  interest  for  a  period  of  more  than  thirty 
years. 

An  earnest  effort  has  been  made  to  secure  photographs 
of  the  men  associated  with  Sheldon  Jackson  in  the  ''  Acts 
of  the  Pioneers"  and  the  author  takes  pleasure  in  pre- 
senting to  his  readers  so  large  a  number  of  those  who 
were  at  the  front  in  the  sixties  and  seventies.  There  are 
many  more,  however,  whose  photographs  could  not  be 
secured,  who  are  equally  worthy  of  recognition  and 
honour.  To  guard  against  a  wrong  impression  atten- 
tion is  called  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  photographs 
secured  for  this  work  give  the  likeness  of  men  much 
farther  advanced  in  years  than  those  who  laboured  with 
Dr.  Jackson  during  the  period  above  mentioned. 


ANCESTRY— BIRTHPLACE— EARLY  DAYS 

"The  history  of  a  man's  childhood  is  the  description  of  his  parents 
and  environment." — Carlyle. 

SHELDON  JACKSON  was  well-born  and  well- 
reared.  From  his  ancestors  he  inherited  an  ac- 
cumulated store  of  the  ' '  blessings  of  the  right- 
eous," and  throughout  the  formative  period  of  his  life  he 
enjoyed  the  inestimable  advantages  of  a  refined  Christian 
home,  in  the  midst  of  a  quiet,  well-ordered,  and  intelli- 
gent community.  His  grandfathers  were  men  of  ability 
and  influence  in  the  neighbourhood  in  which  his  youth- 
ful days  were  spent,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  the 
affairs  of  Church  and  State. 

His  paternal  grandfather,  the  Hon.  Samuel  Jackson, 
was  born  in  England  and  came  over  to  the  United  States 
in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He  settled 
in  Montgomery  County,  N.  Y. ,  where  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Louise  Heyer,  an  accomplished  lady  of  American 
birth.  His  business  ventures  proved  to  be  very  success- 
ful, and  he  was  called  to  several  offices  of  honour  and 
trust.  He  was  a  member  of  the  state  legislature  for  five 
terms,  a  committeeman  at  the  inaugural  celebration  of 
the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal ;  a  lieutenant- colonel 
during  the  War  of  1812,  and,  later,  a  colonel  of  the  188th 
Eegiment  of  the  State  Infantry.  In  the  neighbourhood 
where  he  first  cast  his  lot  Samuel  Jackson  spent  the  whole 
of  his  active  business  life,  and  was  held  in  high  esteem  as 
a  trustworthy  leader  and  wise  couns('llor.  He  died, 
April  12th  1845,  at  the  age  of  ninety  years. 

17 


18  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Alexander  Sheldon,  M.  D.,  his  maternal  grandfather, 
was  graduated  from  Yale  University  in  1787  and  from  the 
New  York  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  1812. 
He  found  a  desirable  place  of  settlement  in  or  near  the 
village  of  Charlestown,  Montgomery  County.  Here  his 
ability  and  worth  as  a  skilled  physician  and  a  safe  leader 
in  the  local  and  political  movements  of  the  times  were 
quickly  recognized.  He  was  a  member  of  the  legislature 
for  eight  terms,  speaker  of  the  Assembly  for  five  sessions  ; 
a  regent  of  the  New  York  State  University  ;  judge  of 
the  county  court,  and  a  delegate  to  the  Convention  of 
1821  for  the  revision  of  the  State  Constitution.  He  died 
at  Charlestown  on  the  10th  of  September,  in  the  seventieth 
year  of  his  age.  The  Sheldons  and  the  Jacksons,  whose 
homes  were  only  a  few  miles  apart,  had  many  interests  in 
common,  and  the  intimacy  which  had  grown  up  between 
them  was  strengthened  and  made  more  enduring  by  the 
marriage  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  daughter,  Delia  Sheldon,  to 
Samuel  Clinton  Jackson,  December  19,  1832.  It  seemed 
fitting  also  that  the  first-born  of  this  happily  united  pair, 
should  receive  in  baptism  and  by  hereditary  succession, 
the  name — Sheldon  Jackson. 

Samuel  Clinton  Jackson  was  born  June  17, 1807.  After 
he  had  completed  the  ordinary  course  of  studies  in 
the  public  school  he  was  sent  to  the  celebrated  Eensselaer 
Polytechnic  Institute,  at  Troy,  N.  Y.  His  natural  bent 
was  in  the  line  of  mechanical  pursuits,  but  the  business 
which  his  father  had  carried  on  for  many  years  required 
his  attention,  and,  eventually,  at  the  completion  of  his 
college  course,  he  became  his  successor.  After  his  mar- 
riage, Mr.  Jackson  lived  in  the  house  which  his  father 
had  occupied  at  Minaville,  and  here,  on  the  18th  of  May, 
1834,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  born. 

The  village  of  Minaville,  which  for  a  time  was  not  dis- 
tinguished by  name  from  the  township  in  which  it  is 


ANCESTRY— BIRTHPLACE— EARLY  DAY^S    19 

situated,  lies  in  a  little  greeu  intervale  on  the  southern 
border  of  the  Mohawk  Valley.  The  "  Chuctanunda,"  a 
rippling  stream  from  the  adjacent  hills,  whose  name  re- 
calls the  days  of  the  Indiai*  occupation,  flows  through  the 
town  and  contributes  its  quota  to  its  picturesque  setting. 
A  good  macadam  road  connects  it  with  Amsterdam  on 
the  north  side  of  the  Mohawk  River,  some  five  miles  dis- 
tant. This  is  its  nearest  outlet  to  the  great  thoroughfares 
of  travel  and  commerce,  which  in  this  vicinity  keep  close 
to  the  banks  of  the  stream.  Isolated  from  the  noise  and 
distractions  of  the  busy  outside  world,  Minaville  has  long 
been  a  tranquil,  restful  retreat,  where  much  of  the  simple 
life  and  unconventional  ways  of  the  former  generations 
have  been  retained.  A  local  chronicler  has  aptly 
described  it  as  "a  place  so  quiet  and  peaceful  that  one 
might  easily  imagine  it  the  happy  valley  of  Rasselas." 
There  is  certainly  but  little  in  the  place  or  its  surround- 
ings to  suggest  the  beginnings  or  after  developments  of  a 
notably  strenuous  life.  For  a  century  or  more,  the  little 
town,  almost  hidden  from  view  by  its  overshadowing 
trees,  has  held  its  own  in  the  struggle  for  existence  ;  and 
while  its  houses  are  still  few  in  number  they  represent  the 
better  class  of  village  homes  in  an  intelligent  and  pros- 
perous community. 

The  former  home  of  the  Jacksons,  which  belongs  to  the 
business  section  of  the  place,  is  a  well-preserved,  substan- 
tial house,  unpretentious  in  appearance,  but  evidently 
one  of  the  best  of  its  class  at  the  date  of  its  erection. 
From  this  building,  which  one  day  was  found  to  be  on  fire, 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  carried  out,  while  a  babe  in  arms, 
to  a  place  of  safety.  Happily  for  all  concerned,  the  fire 
was  extinguished  before  it  had  done  much  damage.  Soon 
after  this  event,  Mr.  Jackson  removed  his  family  to 
Esperance,  a  prosperous  village  in  the  Schoharie  Valley, 
about    ten    miles    south  of   Minaville.     At  that  time, 


20  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Esperance  was  favom-ably  situated  on  the  great  thorough- 
fare, or  toll  road,  between  Albany  and  Buffalo  ;  and  the 
main  object  of  the  removal  was  to  secure  a  better  location 
for  the  business  in  which  Mr.  Jackson  was  engaged.  A 
notable  feature  of  the  village,  which  at  the  present  time 
has  a  population  of  about  six  hundred,  is  the  broad 
avenue,  flanked  by  a  double  row  of  elms  and  maples  of 
mature  growth  and  magnificent  proportions,  on  which 
most  of  the  buildings  are  located. 

Esperance  was  originally  a  Huguenot  settlement,  and 
from  the  first  the  leading  church  of  the  place  was  Presby- 
terian. The  settlement  dated  from  the  year  1711.  The 
substantial  stone  church  which  occupies  the  site  of  the 
older  houses  of  worship  was  built  in  1827.  This  building 
is  in  a  good  state  of  preservation  and  its  interior  has  re- 
cently been  remodelled  and  beautified.  It  stands,  almost 
alone,  upon  a  commanding  eminence  above  the  town. 
From  this  standpoint  the  gleaming  waters  of  the  Schoharie 
are  visible  for  several  miles  up  the  beautiful  valley. 

Three  important  events,  closely  related  to  all  that  was 
good  in  the  after-life  and  development  of  the  boy  Sheldon, 
took  place  during  the  residence  of  the  Jackson  family  in 
Esperance.  One  was  the  birth  of  his  sister  Louise,  the 
playmate,  inseparable  companion  and  clear-headed  coun- 
sellor of  his  youthful  days.  Another  was  the  public  con- 
fession of  faith  in  Christ  made  by  his  parents  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  first  to  take  this 
step  was  Mrs.  Jackson,  who  united  with  the  church  dur- 
ing the  ministrations  of  the  Eev.  B.  H.  Pitman,  Decem- 
ber 23,  1837.  A  few  months  later  Mr.  Jackson  was  re- 
ceived into  the  same  communion.  From  this  time  onward 
the  word  of  the  Lord  was  the  law  of  the  household,  and 
all  its  affairs  were  ordered  in  cheerful  obedience  to  its  re- 
quirements. The  third  event,  which  followed  as  a 
natural  sequence,  was  the  public  dedication  of  the  chil- 


I.  Sheldon    Jackson's    birthplace.      2.  Preshjterian    Church    of 
Esperance.  3.  Farmhouse.  Home  of  his  childhood  and  youth.  1840-58. 


ANCESTRY— BIRTHPLACE— EARLY  DAYS    21 

dren  of  this  household  to  the  Lord  aud  His  service,  in 
the  ordinance  of  Christian  baptism,  on  the  11th  of  De- 
cember, 1838. 

If  this  had  been  merely  the  formal  service  of  "Christen- 
ing, ' '  with  which  some  parents  seem  to  be  content,  it  would 
not  have  been  deemed  worthy  of  notice  in  this  connection. 

To  this  young  couple,  however,  who  had  first,  and  so 
recently,  given  their  own  selves  to  the  Lord,  it  meant  a 
virtual  surrender  of  their  offspring  to  His  service,  as  real, 
aud  sincere  aud  unreserved  as  that  which  Hannah  made 
when  she  presented  her  first-born  child  before  the  Lord 
at  Shiloh.  It  was  a  dedication  to  service  in  the  House  of 
the  Lord,  and  in  this  thing,  in  after  years,  the  desire  of 
their  hearts  was  granted.  At  this  time  Sheldon  Jackson 
was  four  and  a  half  years  old  ;  and  the  fact  is  abundantly 
attested  that,  in  connection  with  this  sacramental  service, 
he  was  solemnly  dedicated  by  his  parents  to  the  ofiice  of 
the  gospel  ministry.  From  that  day  until  the  day  of 
his  ordination  to  this  holy  ofiice  by  the  presbytery  of 
Albany,  in  1858,  neither  he  nor  his  parents  had  any  other 
thought  than  that  he  was  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Gospel. 
With  this  was  associated  also  the  hope  and  expectation 
that  he  should  be  called  to  a  life  of  service  in  the  mission 
field.  The  consciousness  that  he  was  set  apart  to  this 
holy  mission  was  an  ever-present  incentive  to  duty  in  his 
youthful  days  aud,  as  he  himself  affirms,  was,  doubtless, 
one  of  the  most  potent  influences  in  restraining  him  from 
boyish  follies  and  excesses. 

On  the  26th  of  June,  1839,  Samuel  C.  Jackson  was 
unanimously  chosen  to  the  ofiice  of  ruling  elder  in  the 
church  of  Esperance,  and  in  the  following  mouth  of  Sep- 
tember he  was  ordained  and  installed.  This  ofiice,  which 
he  filled  with  ability  and  conscientious  fidelity  for  many 
years,  brouglit  him  into  close  relations  and  active  sym- 
pathy with  the  wider  fields  of  Christian  work  and  inten- 


22  SHELDON  JACKSON 

sified  his  interest  in  all  that  related  to  the  extension  and 
progress  of  the  Church  at  home  and  abroad.  During  his 
term  of  active  service  he  was  frequently  chosen  as  a  com- 
missioner to  the  General  Assembly  and  always  took  a 
lively  interest  in  the  questions  which  came  before  it  for 
discussion  or  settlement.  He  was  a  Presbyterian  of  the 
most  decided  and  unwavering  type,  but  he  had  charity 
sweet  enough,  and  broad  enough,  to  recognize  and  ap- 
prove that  which  was  good  and  commendable  in  those,  of 
other  views  or  denominations,  who  might  disagree  with 
him.  In  the  community  where  he  was  best  known,  as 
well  as  in  the  places  where  he  spent  the  later  years  of  his 
life,  Mr.  Jackson  was  honoured  and  beloved  by  old  and 
young  for  his  gentleness  of  disposition,  kindness  of  heart, 
and  unobtrusive  goodness. 

In  his  home  life,  and  to  a  great  extent  also  in  his  pub- 
lic life,  Mr.  Jackson  was  helped  and  stimulated  to  higher 
endeavours,  by  the  wise  counsels  and  wholesome  influ- 
ences of  the  gifted  woman  to  whom,  in  early  manhood,  he 
gave  his  heart  and  hand,  and  with  whom  he  was  privi- 
leged to  live,  in  the  closest  of  all  human  relationships, 
for  more  than  fifty  years.  ' '  It  has  been  often  remarked  of 
him,"  says  a  correspondent  of  the  Evangelist,  "  that  he  was 
equal  to  a  co-pastor  in  the  efficient  aid  he  rendered  the 
minister  in  charge  ;  but  his  efficiency  in  the  Church  was 
greatly  augmented  by  the  sympathetic  interest  of  his 
wife,  who  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  Scriptural  designa- 
tion, was  'an  helpmeet  for  him.'  " 

A  few  years  after  his  settlement  in  Esperance,  Mr. 
Jackson's  health  became  so  seriously  impaired  by  the 
close  confinement  of  the  store,  that  he  gave  up  mercan- 
tile business  and  took  charge  of  an  old  homestead  farm 
in  Florida  township,  to  which  his  father  had  retired 
several  years  before.  The  removal  of  the  family  from 
Esperance  was  probably  in  the  spring  of  1840,  and  at 


ANCESTRY— BIRTHPLACE— EAELY  DAYS    23 

this  time  the  boy  Sheldou  was  about  six  years  of  age. 
In  the  management  and  improvement  of  this  valuable 
landed  estate,  which  passed  into  his  hands  at  his  father's 
death,  Mr.  Jackson  found  congenial  work  and,  at  length, 
greatly  improved  health. 

The  old  homestead  or  manor  house,  which  was  erected 
by  Samuel  C.  Jackson's  father,  has  been  modernized  in 
some  respects,  but  its  main  features  have  not  been  mate- 
rially changed.  It  is  admirably  located,  on  a  slight  rise, 
or  knoll,  by  the  edge  of  a  picturesque  little  glen,  which 
is  bordered  on  the  side  next  the  house  by  a  massive  stone 
wall.  Like  most  of  the  New  York  country  homes,  of  the 
better  class,  it  is  a  white  frame  house,  large,  roomy,  sym- 
metrical in  outlines  and  complete  in  all  its  appointments. 
Two  widely-spreading  horse  chestnuts  shade  the  lawn  in 
front  and  graceful  elms  droop  their  branches  all  around 
it.  It  was  not  a  home  of  luxury,  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  expression  is  used  to-day;  but  it  was  a  "house  of 
plenty,"  where  orchard,  garden  and  farm  yielded  their 
choicest  fruits,  and  flowers  bloomed  in  great  profusion 
under  the  touch  of  skillful,  sympathetic  hands.  In  this 
home  of  comfort  and  refinement,  amid  the  fresh,  whole- 
some influences  of  country  life,  Sheldon  Jackson  grew  up 
to  the  full  estate  and  vigour  of  manhood.  While  giving 
most  of  his  time  to  study,  he  helped  in  the  morning  and 
evening  chores,  and  as  he  advanced  in  years  took  a  hand 
in  the  general  work  of  the  farm  in  leisure  hours  of  the 
summer  vacations.  During  the  whole  of  this  period, 
covering  a  stretch  of  eighteen  years,  the  Jacksons  re- 
tained their  connection  with  the  little  mission  church  at 
Esperauce,  ten  miles  distant,  and  regularly  attended  its 
services.  The  road  to  this  distant  sanctuary  was  rugged 
and  excej)tioually  hilly.  In  the  spring  and  fall  it  was 
seldom  free  from  mud  and  ruts ;  in  the  summer,  it  was 
rough  and  stony,  and  in  the  winter  the  exposed  places 


24  SHELDON  JACKSON 

were  frequently  blocked  for  weeks  with  the  drifting 
snows.  Notwithstanding  these  formidable  obstacles, 
the  journey  was  made  back  and  forth,  week  by  week, 
with  wonderful  regularity.  It  is  a  matter  of  record  that 
the  villagers  within  two  blocks  of  the  church  door  were 
not  more  regular  in  their  attendance  at  the  morning  serv- 
ice than  the  entire  Jackson  family.  From  personal  rec- 
ollections, Dr.  Jackson  has  given  the  following  descrip- 
tion of  these  extraordinary  Sabbath-day  journeys  : — 

In  the  short  days  of  winter  on  Sabbath  morning  the  chores 
were  done,  preparations  made,  and  breakfast  over  before  day- 
hght.  The  team  was  hitched  up,  buffalo  robes,  blankets  and 
straw,  with  the  necessary  axe  and  shovel  were  placed  in  the 
sleigh  ;  and  as  the  family  locked  the  doors  and  went  out  from 
the  house  they  carried  with  them  the  lunch-basket,  and  a  three- 
inch  oak  plank,  or  soapstone,  that  had  been  heated  in  the  oven 
of  the  stove,  to  keep  their  feet  warm.  On  these  ten  mile  trips, 
going  and  returning  from  church,  it  was  not  an  uncommon  oc- 
currence for  the  sleigh  to  upset,  or  the  horses  to  get  down  in 
the  snow.  In  such  case,  a  buffalo  robe  would  be  spread  on  the 
snow  upon  which  would  be  placed  the  mother  and  daughter. 
Then  while  the  son  was  stationed  at  the  horses'  heads  the  father 
would  loosen  the  traces  and  right  the  sled  or  help  up  the  team. 
Frequently,  on  these  occasions,  a  panel  would  be  broken  out  of 
the  road  fence  with  the  axe  and  a  path  shovelled  through  the 
drifts  into  the  neighbouring  field,  where  the  sled  could  make 
progress  parallel  with  the  road,  until  a  place  was  reached  where 
the  drifts  were  passable. 

When,  after  experiences  such  as  these,  the  village  was 
reached  and  the  team  put  away  in  a  barn,  Mr.  Jackson 
would  shovel  the  path  for  the  villagers  from  the  street  to 
the  church  door,  heat  and  ventilate  the  room,  and  finally 
ring  the  church  bell.  At  the  close  of  the  service,  lunch 
was  served  from  the  well-furnished  basket ;  and  as  soon 
as  convenient  thereafter,  the  family  returned  to  their 
home,    completing  their  twenty  mile  ride  after  dark. 


ANCESTRY— BIRTHPLACE— EARLY  DAYS    25 

Wlieu  the  conditions  were  favourable,  the  time  on  the 
roiid  was  sometimes  utilized  by  the  mother  in  questioning 
the  children  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly.  The  courage  and  persistency  shown  in  these 
tedious  and  long-continued  journeys  are  suggestive  of  the 
quality  and  texture  of  the  moral  fibre  which  was  in- 
wrought into  the  character  and  life  of  the  pioneer  mis- 
sionary of  later  days.  With  a  view  to  extending  the 
privileges  of  the  Gospel  to  those  who  were  in  his  im- 
mediate neighbourhood,  Samuel  Jackson  established  a 
midweek  prayer-meeting  and  a  monthly  missionary  meet- 
ing, which  were  held,  in  tui-n,  in  two  or  three  of  the  most 
centrally  located  farmhouses.  These  meetings,  which 
were  attended  by  the  youug  people  as  well  as  by  the 
older  persons,  were  successfully  maintained  during  the 
entire  period  of  Mr.  Jackson's  residence  on  the  home- 
stead farm,  and  resulted  in  much  good  to  the  community. 
Mr.  Jackson's  children  were  but  a  short  distance  from 
the  school  building  of  the  district  and  were  favoured  in 
having  teachers  of  exceptional  character  and  ability. 
One  of  these  who  had  charge  of  the  school  for  several 
years, — James  Elder  by  name, — was  a  devout  Christian 
of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  type,  and  exerted  a  wholesome 
influence  in  the  neighbourhood,  as  well  as  upon  the 
youug  people  under  his  immediate  care.  From  early 
childhood  the  country  lad  of  our  story  was  familiar  with 
the  events  connected  with  the  border  Indian  wais  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Schoharie  Valleys  ;  and  the  life  and  mis- 
sionary labours  of  David  Brainerd  and  David  Zeisburger 
among  the  Indian  tribes  of  these  valleys  had  for  him  a 
siDgular  fascination,  which  no  doubt  had  its  influence  in 
determining  the  bent  of  his  after-life.  xVside  from  the 
works  to  which  he  had  access  on  these  themes,  his  prin- 
cipal reading  was  in  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress," 
Washington  Irving' s  Works,  some  of  Scott's  Novels,  the 


26  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Philadelphia  Presbyterian  and  the  Home  Missionary  Mag- 
azine, which  at  that  time  was  published  jointly  by  the 
Boards  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  Churches. 
Amid  such  influences  and  surroundings, — healthful,  re- 
fining, stimulating  and  uplifting, — the  boy  Sheldon  grew 
in  years  and  knowledge  ;  and  began  to  see  visions  and 
dream  dreams,  relating  to  the  great  world  and  its  possi- 
bilities, beyond  the  confines  of  the  narrow  valley  in  which 
his  lot  was  cast. 


II 

PREPARATION  DAYS 

Academy — College — Seminary 

"  There  is  no  road  to  success,  but  through  a  clear,  strong  purpose.'' 

—T.  T.  Hunger. 

IN  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  age,  Sheldon  Jackson  was 
sent  to  an  academy  of  note  at  Glen  Falls,  N.  Y. 
During  the  year  which  he  spent  in  this  school  (1848- 
1849),  his  pastor  at  Esperauce,  the  Eev.  Saunders  Dief- 
endorf,  D.  D.,  removed  to  Haysville,  Ohio,  and  took 
charge  of  a  Presbyterian  Academy  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  which  under  his  administration  became  one  of  the 
famous  preparatory  schools  of  its  day,  in  the  region  west 
of  the  Alleghenies.  To  this  school,  with  a  view  to  com- 
ing under  the  care  and  influence  of  a  tried  friend  and  able 
instructor,  the  lad  was  transferred  in  the  fall  of  1849.  On 
his  arrival,  he  was  received  into  the  home  of  Dr.  Diefen- 
dorf  and  was  treated  as  a  member  of  his  family.  Here 
he  continued  his  studies  until  he  was  far  enough  advanced 
to  enter  the  sophomore  class  at  college.  ''During  this 
period,''  says  the  Eev.  Isaac  M.  Hughes,  of  Kichmond, 
Ind. — one  of  his  esteemed  fellow  students — "  young  Jack- 
son was  diligent,  painstaking,  and  conscientious  as  a  stu- 
dent, giving  close  attention  both  to  his  class-room  and 
religious  duties  ;  and  was  withal  a  most  delightful  com- 
panion and  schoolmate."  In  the  autumn  of  1852,  he 
was  matriculated  as  a  sophomore  at  Union  College, 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.  The  seat  of  this  justly  famed  insti- 
tution, now  Union  University,  was  within  easy  reach  of 

27 


28  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  Jackson  home,  and  during  the  three  years  which  he 
spent  within  its  walls  he  ke]3t  in  close  touch  with  the 
members  of  his  own  family  circle  and  the  friends  of  his 
childhood  days.  "As  I  remember  him,"  writes  one  of 
his  classmates,  David  Little,  M.  D.,  of  Eochester,  N.  Y., 
"  he  was  a  sober-minded  lad,  giving  close  attention  to  his 
college  duties.  He  stood  well  up  in  his  class,  being  ac- 
corded a  place  as  a  speaker  on  commencement  day. 
Since  our  graduation,  fifty  years  ago,  I  have  seen  little, 
but  have  read  and  heard  much  of  him  as  a  missionary  in 
the  Far  West  and  a  pioneer  in  Alaska.  In  college  he 
was  called  a  '  plodder '  by  some  of  the  students,  but  he 
plodded  then  and  has  plodded  since  to  good  purpose." 

In  the  nineteenth  year  of  his  age, — October  1,  1853 — 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  received  into  the  full  communion  of 
the  church  in  which  he  had  been  dedicated  to  God  in  in- 
fancy. The  desire  to  make  this  public  avowal  of  alle- 
giance to  Christ  had  long  been  cherished  in  his  heart,  but 
hitherto  he  had  rej)ressed  it  for  lack,  as  he  supposed,  of 
suflficient  evidence  to  justify  the  claim  that  he  had  expe- 
rienced a  genuine,  or  radical,  change  of  heart.  There  was 
nothing  in  his  own  personal  experience,  so  far  back  as 
memory  could  go,  to  correspond  with  the  conversion  of 
Saul  of  Tarsus  or  the  jailor  of  Philippi,  and  hence  he 
did  not  feel  that  he  had  a  clear  title  to  a  place  at  the 
Lord's  table.  While  in  college,  under  the  ministry  of 
Dr.  J.  Trumbull  Backus,  he  was  shown  the  true  ground 
of  the  Christian's  hope  and  confidence,  as  distinct  from 
modes  of  conversion  or  extraordinary  experiences  attend- 
ing conviction  of  sin  ;  and  was  encouraged  to  assume  all 
the  duties  and  privileges  erf  the  Christian  disciple.  In 
after-years,  speakiug  of  his  boyhood  and  judging  it  from 
his  maturer  knowledge  of  the  operations  of  grace  in  the 
heart,  he  asserts  that  he  could  not  recall  a  time  when  he 
had  not  believed  in  Jesus  and  sought  to  honour  Him  j 


Associates  and  Helpers. 
{For  naiiirs  sec  .Ippciuii.v,  page  479.     Group   I.) 


PREPARATION  DAYS  29 

when  he  had  not  struggled  against  sin  and  had  not  lived 
a  life  of  prayer.  With  the  settlement  of  this  question  he 
joyfully  accepted  the  full  responsibilities  of  discipleship, 
and  at  once  became  active  and  alert  in  improving  oppor- 
tunities for  service  and  especially  in  seeking  to  win  souls 
to  Christ.  Three  months  later,  in  great  measure  through 
his  influence,  his  only  sister  (Mrs.  George  Norcross), 
united  with  the  church.  In  the  years  of  preparation  fol- 
lowing, several  of  his  cousins  and  young  friends  were  in- 
fluenced by  him  to  accept  Christ,  or  to  take  their  stand 
among  His  professed  disciples.  Among  these  was  a  col- 
lege friend  who  was  led  by  him  into  the  kingdom  and 
the  ministry ;  and  another,  also,  of  whom  mention  shall 
be  made  hereafter,  who  in  the  closest  and  most  sacred  of 
human  relationships  has  for  half  a  century  shared  in  his 
toils  and  rejoiced  in  his  triumphs. 

At  this  period  of  his  life,  as  well  as  in  later  days,  the 
desire  to  win  souls  to  Christ  seems  to  be  uppermost  in  his 
thoughts  and  interwoven  with  all  his  plans  for  the  near 
as  well  as  the  more  remote  future.  It  was  also  his  desire, 
and  avowed  purpose,  at  this  time  to  devote  his  life,  if  the 
way  should  be  clear,  to  the  work  of  missions  in  the  for- 
eign field.  With  this  in  mind,  he  lived  and  laboured 
throughout  his  entire  course  of  preparatory  studies. 

Meanwhile,  he  was  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  present 
duties  and  was  ever  ready  to  assist  in  the  work  of  Christ 
during  the  vacation  seasons  at  home  or  in  the  associations 
with  which  he  was  connected  in  the  college  and  seminary. 

With  respect  to  physical  culture,  young  Jackson  lacked 
many  of  the  opportunities  and  qualifications  which,  at 
the  present  time,  are  supposed  to  be  essential  to  the  de- 
velopment of  a  strenuous  life.  Athletics  of  the  modern 
''frenzied  "  type  had  no  i^lace  on  the  grounds,  or  in  the 
discipline  of  the  college,  in  his  day  ;  and,  outside  of  the 
professional  boxing-ring,  public  sentiment  had  not  given 


30  SHELDON  JACKSON 

its  approval  to  contests  for  championship  only,  in  which 
the  strong  ruthlessly  trampled  down  the  weak  and  the 
watchword  was  victory  at  any  cost. 

A  popular  writer,  whose  latest  works  are  eagerly  read 
by  old  and  young,  has  described  in  intensely  realistic 
fashion  the  modern  conception  of  a  typical  missionary 
evangelist  of  the  western  frontier.  In  his  college  days, 
he  is  introduced  as  "a  big  man,  gaunt  and  bony,  with  a 
mighty  pair  of  shoulders,  topped  by  a  square,  massive 
head,  on  which  bristled  a  veritable  shock  of  yellow  hair, 
— a  man  who  seemed  too  large  to  be  ignored  and  too  un- 
wieldy to  be  readily  adjusted  to  the  niceties  of  society 
ways."  This  man,  the  pride  of  the  first  eleven  of  his 
college  and  the  ''great  centre"  of  the  "varsity 
phalanx,"  wins  the  championship  of  Canada  on  a  hotly 
contested  football  field,  emerging  from  the  struggling 
mass  of  his  opponents  "a  ghastly,  bloody,  fearsome 
spectacle."  On  the  frontier,  this  man  of  might  and 
muscle,  who  in  his  youthful  days  had  also  learned  the 
tricks  of  the  boxers  and  the  twists  of  the  Japanese,  wins 
admiration  and  converts,  on  one  occasion  by  flinging  an 
obstinate  cowboy  over  his  head  into  the  dust ;  on  another 
by  carrying  a  drunken  doctor  in  his  arms,  whom  he  had 
kidnapped  in  his  helpless  imbecility,  to  see  a  patient 
who  needed  surgical  care  ;  and,  on  still  another  occasion, 
by  courageously  closing  with  three  desperate  men  in  a 
scuffle  over  one  of  their  victims  in  a  gambling  saloon. 
With  these  extraordinary  gifts  and  accomplishments  this 
typical  missionary  of  the  frontier  combines,  except  in  mo- 
ments of  unusual  provocation,  the  gentleness  of  a  child 
and  the  tenderness  of  a  \70man  with  his  great  strength 
and  unquestioned  courage. 

In  this  fancy  sketch,  which  has  in  it  enough  of  praise- 
worth;^  sentiment  and  sober  truth  to  fascinate  and  thrill 
the  most  unsympathetic  and  antagonistic  of  its  critics, 


PREPARATION  DAYS  31 

there  are  but  few  elements  which  correspond  with  the  life 
and  eminent  service  of  the  hero  of  our  matter-of-fact 
story.  During  his  school-days  he  was  a  lad  of  slight 
build,  physically  small,  a  sufferer  at  times  from  poor 
health  and  weak  eyes ;  and,  by  temx)erament  and  con- 
scientious scruples,  averse  to  all  that  was  rough  and  de- 
moralizing, whether  in  sport  or  in  sober  earnest.  He 
had  no  training  in  the  ''  manly  art  of  self-defense,"  and 
his  fitness  for  service  did  not  depend  upon  any  extraor- 
dinary manifestation  of  physical  prowess,  or  development 
of  physical  culture,  in  the  days  of  his  youth.  "For 
amusement,"  he  says,  "we  played  baseball,  pitched 
quoits,  and  in  winter  coasted  down  the  hills,  when  we 
were  boys  ;  but  I  never  had  any  special  training  or 
practice,  or  was  I  ever  present  at  a  match  game  between 
parties  from  different  places."  In  later  days,  he  learned 
to  suffer  and  endure  for  the  Gospel's  sake,  and  this  had 
its  reflex  influence  in  the  develoi^ment  of  a  hardier  con- 
stitution and  a  more  rugged  frame ;  but  in  the  conflict  for 
mastery  over  the  allied  forces  of  evil  in  the  mining  camp 
and  on  the  frontier  the  weapons  of  his  warfare  were  not 
carnal.  The  triumphs  over  which  he  now  looks  back 
with  joy,  were  not  won  by  the  arm  of  flesh.  In  the 
fortieth  year  of  his  unique  and  wonderfully  varied  mis- 
sionary service  he  was  briefly  described  in  a  local  news- 
paper item  as  : — "Short,  bewhiskered,  and  bespectacled. 
By  inside  measurement  a  giant."  On  one  occasion,  it  is 
said,  a  j^residing  officer  mistook  a  Tennessee  missionary 
of  similar  name  for  Dr.  Jackson,  and  introduced  him  as 
our  "stalwart  friend  from  tlie  Rocky  Mountains." 
When  the  little  doctor  mounted  the  platform  the  smiles 
were  audible,  and  he  naively  remarked  :  "  If  I  had  been 
more  stalwart  in  height,  I  could  not  have  slept  so  many 
nights  on  the  four-and-a-half  foot  seat  of  a  Rocky  Moun- 
tain stage."     This  inheritance,  says  the  writer  of  the  in- 


32  SHELDON  JACKSON 

cident,  has  no  doubt  helped  him  to  be  what  a  stage-driver 
styled  him  : — "the  hardiest  aud  handiest  traveller  of  his 
acquaintance," 

In  the  spring  of  1855,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  graduated 
at  Union  College,  and  in  the  autumn  following  entered 
upon  his  course  of  theological  studies  at  Princeton. 
Here  he  identified  himself  more  closely  with  those  who 
had  the  mission  field  in  view,  aud  in  the  weekly  prayer- 
meeting,  especially,  did  he  come  into  close  fellowship  with 
a  notable  band  of  missionary  enthusiasts  and  heroes, 
whose  names  are  familiar  to-day  in  all  the  churches. 

Among  thes^  were  David  McGilvary,  the  veteran  mis- 
sionary among  the  Laos,  Samuel  Eankin  Gayley,  who 
went  to  his  reward  from  China,  Charles  Roger  Mills,  who 
spent  nearly  a  half-century  in  China,  Jonathan  Wilson  of 
Siam,  Augustus  Broadhead,  who  gave  his  life  to  India, 
Robert  Hamil  Nassau,  the  veteran  missionary  of  Africa, 
Ashbel  Green  Simonton,  who  gave  the  Gospel  to  Brazil  ; 
and  a  still  larger  number  who  established  churches  in  the 
wilderness  and  on  our  western  frontier. 

Mr.  Jackson  was  received  under  the  care  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Albany  at  its  spring  meeting  in  1856,  and 
spent  part  of  the  summer  vacation  in  canvassing  from 
house  to  house  in  Montgomery  and  Schenectady  Coun- 
ties, N.  Y.,  as  a  colporteur  under  commission  of  the 
Board  of  Publication.  In  this  work  he  learned  much 
of  the  world  and  of  human  nature,  and  found  the  under- 
taking, as  a  whole,  much  pleasanter  than  he  had  antic- 
ipated. In  one  tour  of  eighteen  days  he  disposed  of  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars'  worth  of  books.  He 
had  frequent  opportunities  to  preach  the  Gospel  while 
engaged  in  this  work,  and,  although  he  was  not  formally 
licensed,  he  regarded  his  commission  from  the  Board  as 
broad  enough  to  cover  the  ground.  On  the  13th  of 
July,  1856,  he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the  Dutch 


PREPARATION  DAYS  33 

Reformed  church  at  Auriesville,  Montgomery  County. 
His  text, — "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us" — has 
been  the  key-note  of  his  life-long  ministry,  which  in  its 
public  manifestation  may  be  said  to  date  from  that  day. 
In  this  service,  as  he  intimates  in  his  diary,  he  was  not 
nearly  as  much  embarrassed  as  he  expected  to  be.  ' '  One 
lady  fell  asleep  during  the  discourse,"  but  to  offset  this 
there  were  several  who  afterwards  commended  the  sermon 
and  encouraged  the  speaker.  At  the  outset  of  this  sum- 
mer's work  he  decided  to  set  apart  one-fifth  of  his  com- 
mission for  the  sale  of  books  to  the  benevolent  agencies 
of  the  Church,  but  at  the  close  of  the  season  he  recon- 
sidered this  decision  and  devoted  one-half  of  it  as  a 
thank-offering  to  God  for  His  goodness  and  preserving 
care. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1857,  Jackson  was  licensed  to 
preach  the  Gospel  by  the  Presbytery  of  Albany.  This 
service  was  held  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Amsterdam,  N.  Y.  Four  days  later,  he  was  appointed  an 
agent  of  the  American  Systematic  Beneficence  Society, 
located  in  Philadelphia  ;  and  with  his  usual  energy  en- 
tered upon  the  work  which  had  been  outlined  for  him  by 
this  association.  Its  object,  as  indicated  in  his  commis- 
sion, was  "  to  present  the  cause  of  Systematic  Beneficence 
by  addresses  to  public  assemblies,  by  holding  conferences 
with  pastors  of  churches  and  friends  of  Scriptural  liber- 
ality, and  by  such  proper  additional  methods  as  may  be 
most  feasible  ;  also,  to  collect  funds  for  the  work  of  the 
society  and  transmit  the  same  to  the  treasurer."  Among 
the  leaders  of  note  in  this  movement  which  was  undenom- 
inational in  its  constitution  and  sphere  of  operation,  were 
Mr.  M.  W.  Baldwin,  President ;  George  H.  Stuart,  Vice- 
President  ;  and  Thomas  Cooper,  its  Secretary.  Sheldon 
Jackson  was  the  first  agent  appointed  by  this  society. 
In  the  three  months  in  which  he  was  engaged  in  this 


34  SHELDON  JACKSON 

work,  he  conferred  with  seventy-five  ministers  and  ad- 
dressed fifty -three  congregations  in  the  leading  cities  be- 
tween New  York  and  Leavenworth,  Kansas.  On  one 
occasion,  as  the  record  shows,  he  visited  ten  pastors  on 
Saturday  and  on  the  following  Sabbath  filled  four  ap- 
pointments,— viz.,  at  11  A.  M.  ;  2  P.  M. ;  4  P.  M ;  and  7  P.  M., 
— in  the  churches  of  four  different  denominations.  This 
vacation  experience  proved  to  be  a  very  helpful  one  in 
connection  with  the  after-labours  of  Sheldon  Jackson, 
and  it  brought  him  into  close  touch  and  intimate  relations 
with  some  noble  men  and  women  of  means  and  generous 
impulses,  to  whom  he  could  appeal  with  confidence  when 
face  to  face  with  the  exigencies  and  extraordinary  de- 
mands of  his  great  life-work. 

The  autumn  of  1857  was  a  time  of  unusual  interest  in 
missionary  and  evangelistic  work.  The  breath  of  God's 
Spirit  had  quickened  the  hearts  of  multitudes  in  every 
part  of  the  land.  Houses  of  worship  were  crowded  daily 
with  earnest  worshippers  and  anxious  inquirers,  and 
prayers  were  going  up  spontaneously  from  city  and  vil- 
lage and  hamlet  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  the  wonderful  revival,  known  as  ''The 
Great  Awakening."  The  hearts  of  many  had  been 
touched  also  by  the  martyrdom  of  eight  beloved  mission- 
aries of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India,  a  few  months 
before,  and  by  reason  of  this  fiery  trial  the  whole  church 
had  been  brought  into  deeper  sympathy  and  closer  rela- 
tions with  those  who,  in  the  face  of  peril  and  sufiering, 
represented  them  in  these  far-away  lands. 

On  his  return  to  the  seminary,  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember, Mr.  Jackson  came  more  directly  within  the 
range  of  these  influences,  and  entered  with  hearty  enthu- 
siasm upon  the  double  work  of  winning  souls  to  Christ 
and  alluring  recruits  to  the  little  band  of  devoted  men 
who  were  already  committed,  by  covenant  engagements, 


PREPARATION  DAYS  35 

to  go  to  whatever  part  of  the  world-wide  mission  field  God 
in  His  j)rovideuce  should  direct  them. 

With  the  confident  expectation  of  spending  his  own 
life  in  the  foreign  field,  he  gave  much  of  his  spare  time 
to  the  reading  and  distributing  of  missionary  literature, 
to  public  services  in  the  interests  of  mission  work,  and 
wherever  he  had  the  opj)ortunity  brought  his  personal 
influence  to  bear  in  behalf  of  this  cause.  A  noteworthy 
incident  relating  to  this  period  of  quickened  activity  was 
given  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  W.  McMillan,  President  of 
Richmond  College,  in  a  remarkable  address  made  by  him 
in  support  of  the  nomination  of  Dr.  Jackson  as  a  candi- 
date for  the  office  of  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly. 

"About  forty  years  ago,"  said  Dr.  McMillan,  "  it  was 
my  high  privilege  to  sit  in  the  chapel  of  Princeton  Theo- 
logical Seminary  on  the  Holy  Sabbath  and  listen  to 
Dr.  McGill,  that  eloquent  puljjit  orator,  deliver  a  masterly 
sermon  on  the  subject  of  missions. 

"In  the  course  of  his  argument,  the  Doctor  seemed  to 
be  inspired,  and,  looking  right  down  on  us  students,  he 
thrust  forward  his  hand  and  said  :  '■  Young  man,  if  you 
canH  be  first,  he  foremost  /'  After  the  service  was  over,  a 
young  man  who  sat  by  me  in  the  chapel — a  pure, 
heavenly-minded,  consecrated  young  man — came  into  my 
room  and  said,  '  That  was  a  very  excellent  sermon  to 
which  we  listened  this  morning.'  'Very  fine'  was  the 
reply.  'But,  McMillan,  did  you  notice  that  sentence ? ' 
'  What  sentence  ?  '  was  the  answer.  '  Young  man,  if 
you  canH  he  first,  he  foremost!^  '7  canH  he  first,  I 
will  he  foremost ! '  That  young  man  was  Sheldon 
Jackson."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  lived  and  laboured 
in  the  spirit  of  this  injunction.  In  the  race  set  before 
him  he  was  not  always  first,  but  he  was  never  a  laggard. 
In  the  conflict  he  was  always  at  the  front  with  the  ad 
vance  guard,  or  on  the  skirmishing  line. 


36  SHELDON  JACKSON 

On  the  7tli  of  December,  1857,  Sheldon  Jackson  ad- 
dressed the  following  letter  to  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions : — 

To  the  Executive  Cominittee  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 

Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Sirs  : 

In  accordance  with  your  usage,  I  hereby  offer  myself  as 
a  candidate  for  the  foreign  service.  My  age  is  twenty-four. 
As  to  my  education,  I  have  passed  from  the  common  school 
through  the  academy  and  college  (Union)  to  the  seminary. 
My  employment  when  out  of  school  has  been  farmer  and  car- 
penter. As  to  health,  I  was  completely  prostrated  three  years 
ago ;  having  naturally  a  strong  constitution  I  think  that  at 
present  I  have  nearly  regained  it.  I  united  with  the  church  in 
1853.  Immediately  upon  experiencing  the  love  of  Christ  in 
my  heart  my  mind  was  made  up  to  be  (D.  V.)  both  a  minister 
and  a  missionary.  It  was  to  the  mission  service  I  was  dedi- 
cated in  infant  baptism  and  I  see  no  reason  why  I  should  with- 
hold myself.  At  first,  my  attention  was  directed  to  the  home 
mission  field.  For  the  last  three  years,  however,  it  has  been 
turned  to  the  foreign  service.  This  desire  has  gradually  in- 
creased in  depth  and  strength  as  I  have  examined  the  subject 
and  become  in  some  measure  acquainted  with  the  religious 
aspects  of  the  world. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  Sheldon  Jackson, 
Theological  Seminary,  Princeton, 
December,  i8jj. 


In  this  communication  there  is  no  suggestion  with  re- 
spect to  any  special  field  of  labour,  but  it  appears  from 
intimations  elsewhere  given  that  Mr.  Jackson's  preference 
for  work  in  Syria  or  Siam,  and  later  for  an  appointment 
to  Bogota,  in  South  America,  could  not  be  considered  be- 
cause of  the  report  of  his  examining  physician,  who  de- 
clined to  recommend  him  as  a  fit  subject  for  work  in  the 
foreign  field.  "They  thought  I  was  not  strong,"  he 
says,   in  reply  to  the  question  of  a  reporter,  "  but  I  had 


PREPARATION  DAYS  37 

an  iron  constitution,  with  the  exception  of  dyspepsia." 
Quoting  this,  a  writer  in  The  Forward  adds  :  "When  one 
thinks  of  the  great  army  of  dyspeptics  who  excuse  them- 
selves from  duty  because  of  their  malady,  this  sentence 
seems  humorously  heroic." 

In  accepting  his  services,  the  Board,  apparently  for  the 
reason  above  given,  limited  his  field  of  labour  to  the  In- 
dian tribes  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States. 
The  reply  was  as  follows  : — 

Mission  House,  Neiv  York, 

December  28,  i8jy. 
Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson, 

My  Dear  Sir: — Your  letter  of  22d  instant  was  duly  re- 
ceived, and  was  to-day  laid  before  the  committee.  The  letter 
from  the  brethren  of  the  Albany  Presbytery  was  satisfactory, 
and  you  were  appointed,  with  entire  unanimity,  a  missionary 
of  the  Board.  Your  field  among  the  Indians  was  not  desig- 
nated, nor  at  present  can  we  say  where  the  first  vacancy  will 
occur.  The  Ottoe  Mission  has  been  assigned  to  Mr.  Guthrie, 
who,  with  his  wife,  expect  to  set  out  as  soon  as  the  travelling 
opens.  As  you  will  not  be  ready  to  set  out  before  June,  the 
way  may  be  perfectly  open  before  that  time,  and  we  will  keep 
you  advised  of  anything  that  occurs,  having  a  bearing  on  this 
question. 

I  am,  dear  sir. 

Affectionately  and  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  Walter  Lowrie, 

Secretary. 

With  respect  to  this  action  the  author  of  ''The  Rain- 
bow's End" — Alice  Palmer  Henderson — writing  some 
years  ago,  makes  the  following  comment  :— 

"  I  think  that  the  Board  would  be  ratlier  surprised  to  see 
him  now,  after  forty  years  of  service,  compared  to  which 
Siam  would  have  been  'carried  to  the  skies  on  flowery 
beds  of  ease,'  He  can  endure  more  hardship,  travel,  hard 
work,  and  exposure  this  minute  than  half  the  college  foot- 


38  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ball  players,  and  he  looks  ten  years  younger  than  his 
sixty-four  years." 

About  two  mouths  afterwards, — February  27,  1858 — 
Mr.  Jackson  was  notified  that  he  had  been  commissioned 
for  work  among  the  Indians  of  the  Choctaw  nation  ;  and 
assigned  to  a  vacancy  in  the  mission  school  for  boys  lo- 
cated at  Spencer,  in  the  Indian  Territory.  There  were 
some  things  connected  with  this  appointment  which 
were  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  this  ardent  young  mis- 
sionary, who  longed  above  all  things  else  to  preach  the 
Gospel,  but  the  closing  of  other  doors  and  the  providential 
opening  of  this  one  among  the  heathen  of  his  own  land, 
seemed  to  be  the  answer  to  his  prayer  for  Divine  guid- 
ance. Hence,  he  accepted  the  appointment  without  ques- 
tioning, and  began  at  once  to  adjust  his  plans  for  the  fu- 
ture in  conformity  with  this  decision.  On  the  27th  day 
of  April,  he  was  graduated  from  Princeton  Seminary,  and 
on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  he  left  for  home.  The 
farewell  address  to  the  class  was  made  by  Dr.  Phineas  D. 
Gurley,  of  Washington  City,  and  his  tender,  earuest  words 
made  a  deep  and  abiding  impression  upon  the  young  men 
of  the  class  of  1858,  who  went  forth  on  that  day  from  this 
school  of  the  Prophets  to  their  several  fields  of  labour  in 
the  home  field,  and  in  far-away  lands  beyond  the  seas. 

One  week  later.  May  5th,  Jackson  was  ordained  as 
an  evangelist  by  the  Presbytery  of  Albany.  At  this 
service.  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott,  President  of  Union  College, 
presided  and  offered  the  ordaining  prayer.  Dr.  W.  S. 
Sprague  preached  the  sermon  and  the  Eev.  Charles  H. 
Taylor  gave  the  charge. 

On  the  18th  of  May,  the  twenty-fourth  anniversary  of 
his  birth,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
Voorhees,  at  the  home  of  the  bride,  scarcely  two  miles 
distant  from  his  own  ancestral  home.  The  marriage  was 
solemnized  by  the  Eev.  John  Clancey,  pastor  of  the  Dutch 


PREPARATION  DAYS  39 

Reformed  Church,  Minaville,  in  the  presence  of  a  select 
company  of  relatives  and  personal  friends.  Thus  by  a 
happy  conjunction  three  of  the  most  important  events 
connected  with  the  closing  days  of  this  preparation  period 
took  place  within  a  limit  of  less  than  one  month,  the  two 
last  named  being  in  the  flowery  month  of  May. 


Ill 

THE  CHOCTAW  MISSION 
"  Man  proposeth,  God  disposeth." — Herbert. 

IN  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  of  the  West,  the 
work  of  evangelizing  the  North  American  Indians, 
in  so  far  as  this  was  attempted,  was  carried  on  ex- 
clusively through  the  agency  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions.  The  stations  to  which  its  missionaries  were 
sent  were  usually  on  reservations,  remote  from  civiliza- 
tion, and  virtually  outside  its  pale.  Within  the  limits  of 
the  Indian  Territory,  the  largest  of  these  reservations, 
there  were  motley  groupings  of  Indians,  representing 
several  of  the  aboriginal  confederacies  and  tribes  of  half- 
breeds  of  various  shades  of  colour  ;  and  also  of  negroes, 
who  were  held  as  slaves.  The  mission  to  which  Jackson 
was  assigned  was  in  the  reservation  of  the  Choctaw  na- 
tion, at  the  southeast  corner  of  this  territory.  Its  resi- 
dents were  nominally  Christian,  and  at  this  time  they  ad- 
ministered their  own  affairs,  and,  to  some  extent,  sup- 
ported their  own  churches  and  schools. 

From  St.  Louis,  the  gateway  to  the  vast  and  as  yet  un- 
developed region  in  which  this  station  was  located,  was  a 
tiresome  journey  of  not  less  than  two  weeks.  The  route 
was  partly  by  river  and  partly  by  public  or  private  con- 
veyance, over  roads  which  at  all  times  were  a  menace  to 
safety,  and  frequently  were  almost  impassable. 

There  was  little  of  romance,  and  much  of  self-denial 
and  self-effacement  connected  with  this  isolated  homeland 
mission,  more  remote  from  the  haunts  of  civilization,  in 

40 


THE  CHOCTAW  MISSION  41 

point  of  time,  than  any  of  our  mission  fields  in  Syria  or 
South  America  at  the  present ;  but  the  call  to  labour  in 
it  was  accepted  by  Mr.  Jackson  and  his  bride  without 
question  as  the  call  of  duty,  albeit  with  shrinking. 

In  the  wonderful  arrangements  of  God's  providence  the 
bent  which  was  given  in  this  direction,  as  the  result  of 
that  acceptance,  led  ultimately  to  a  greater  and  more 
widely-extended  work  for  the  long  neglected  Indian  tribes 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  borders  of  Mexico  to  the 
dreary  wastes  of  the  Arctic  circle  in  far-away  Alaska. 
Looking  backward,  a  connection  may  be  traced  between 
this  limited  phase  of  the  work  under  the  Foreign  Board 
and  its  later  developments  under  the  fostering  care  of  the 
Home  Board,  for  here  at  least  the  terms  are  convertible, 
but  he  to  whom  the  leadership  was  given,  knew  nothing 
of  this  at  the  first  and  was  himself  led  in  a  way  which  he 
knew  not. 

The  summer  of  1858  was  one  of  the  few  care-free  vaca- 
tion periods  which  Sheldon  Jackson  enjoyed  before  or 
after  he  entered  upon  his  strenuous  life  of  missionary 
service.  During  his  college  and  seminary  course  his  va- 
cations were  for  the  most  part  mortgaged  to  some  special 
cause  or  agency  in  advance ;  and  the  recreation  feature 
except  as  it  was  found  in  change  of  occupation,  seemed  to 
have  but  brief  space,  by  previous  arrangement  or  in  actual 
experience,  in  any  of  them. 

A  carefully-planned  wedding  journey,  which  included 
in  its  round  New  York  City,  Portsmouth,  Va.,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  Mount  Vernon,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and 
West  Point,  occupied,  in  very  agreeable  fashion,  the  first 
fortnight  of  this  well-earned  interval  of  leisure.  Five  or 
six  weeks  following  were  given  to  brief  visits  among  rela- 
tives and  friends,  and  to  such  final  arrangements  as  were 
necessary  for  the  westward  journey. 

As  the  result  of  a  tour  of  exploration  to  the  West  and 


42  SHELDON  JACKSON 

SouthTfest  in  the  preceding  year,  Mr,  Jackson's  parents 
had  decided  to  remove  to  Galesburg,  Illinois,  where  a 
place  of  residence  had  been  secured  in  anticipation  of  the 
removal  of  the  family  after  the  ordination  and  marriage 
of  their  son.  It  was  arranged  also  that  the  young  couple 
should  make  this  new  home  the  first  stage  in  the  westward 
journey.  In  accordance  with  this  arrangement,  they  left 
their  kinsfolk  and  comfortable  homes  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley  on  the  19th  of  July,  and  set  their  faces  towards  the 
new  life  and  experiences  which  awaited  them  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Mississippi  and  the  "  regions  beyond." 

At  Niagara  Falls,  they  met  the  rest  of  the  Jackson 
family  and  j  ourueyed  with  them  to  Galesburg.  Here  they 
remained,  making  many  pleasant  acquaintances  mean- 
while, until  the  16th  of  September,  when  they  left  for 
Spencer,  by  way  of  Quincy  and  St.  Louis.  The  first  Sab- 
bath of  the  journey  was  spent  at  St.  Louis.  On  the  Mon- 
day followiug,  they  took  passage  on  a  boat,  going  down 
the  river,  for  Napoleon,  Arkansas.  At  this  point,  a 
transfer  was  made  to  a  smaller  steamer  going  up  the 
Arkansas  River.  Little  Rock,  the  terminus  of  the  route 
by  water,  was  reached  September  27th ;  and  here  con- 
nections were  made  with  a  stage  line  to  Washington,  Ark. 
This  was  the  end  of  all  public  accommodations,  and  Mr. 
Jackson  was  obliged  to  secure  a  private  conveyance  to 
Spencer,  120  miles  distant.  The  following  extract  from  a 
letter,  written  by  Mrs.  Jackson  after  her  arrival  at  Spen- 
cer, gives  in  detail  some  of  the  peculiar  experiences  inci- 
dent to  this  long  overland  journey  : — 

"At  Little  Rock  we  took  the  stage  for  Washington. 
We  were  two  days  and  nights  reaching  that  place,  and 
had  most  wretched  fare  offered  us  by  the  way,  for  which 
we  paid  fifty  cents  each.  I  very  often  did  not  eat  at  all. 
At  Washington,  the  hotel  was  most  shocking.  If  the 
floor  in  the  room  we  occupied  had  not  been  so  dirty  we 


THE  CHOCTAW  MISSION  43 

would  have  preferred  it  to  the  bed.  All  the  furniture  the 
parlour  contained  -^as  a  carpet  and  looking-glass,  two  or 
three  chairs,  and  when  meal-time  came  they  took  the 
chairs  oat  of  the  room  and  we  must  needs  stand  or  sit  on 
the  floor,  which  I  did  to  the  astonishment  of  the  natives. 
We  had  some  difficulty  in  procuring  a  hack  to  bring  us 
to  Spencer.  We  finally  made  arrangements  with  a  man 
and  started  about  4  p.  m.  The  next  day  we  rode  ten 
miles,  getting  lost  on  the  way.  That  night  we  put  up  at 
the  house  of  one  of  the  better  class  of  people,  and  had 
good  accommodations  and  a  comfortable  night's  rest. 
The  next  morning  we  started  and  found  that  one  of  the 
horses  was  lame,  but  supposed  that  it  would  get  better 
after  a  little  while,  but  it  grew  worse  and  we  were  obliged 
to  travel  slowly.  Wlien  we  had  travelled  about  twenty 
miles,  the  tire  came  off  one  of  the  wheels.  As  there  was 
no  blacksmith's  shop  near  it  was  fastened  as  well  as  was 
possible  under  the  circumstances,  and  we  endeavoured  to 
reach  a  small  town  ten  miles  distant  where  we  could  have 
it  reset ;  but  night  overtook  us  before  we  reached  it,  and 
the  roads  were  so  bad  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
travel  after  dark.  That  niglit  we  put  up  at  a  place  where 
we  preferred  to  sleep  on  the  floor.  The  next  morning  the 
lame  horse  was  unable  to  travel  and  half  the  day  was  lost 
in  procuring  another,  and  in  repairing  the  damage  to  the 
carriage.  This  being  Saturday,  the  detention  was  par- 
ticularly unfortunate  as  we  wished  to  reach  Mr.  Bying- 
ton's  mission  to  spend  the  Sabbath.  Night  overtook  us 
eighteen  miles  from  this  station,  and  we  stayed  until  Mon- 
day with  a  man  by  the  name  of  Peguis.  About  2  p.  m., 
on  Monday,  we  reached  Mr.  Byington's  and  took  dinner. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Byington  are  pleasant  old  people.  Both 
have  been  sick  this  summer.  Monday  evening  we  arrived 
at  a  place  called  Depot.  Here  it  was  worse  than  ever. 
We  had  to  share  our  room  with  the  driver  and  some  oth- 


44  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ers,  and  the  bed  was  alive  with  bugs.  We  thought  the 
wagou  preferable,  and  slept  in  that  the  next  night." 

On  Wednesday,  the  day  after  the  exiierience  noted 
above, — October  6,  1858 — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jackson  arrived 
safely  at  Spencer  and  were  warmly  welcomed  by  their  as- 
sociates in  the  mission.  In  the  school,  as  organized  at 
this  time,  there  were  three  departments,  designated  as 
the  Primary,  Second  and  Third.  In  each  department 
there  was  a  male  teacher  and  a  female  assistant  who 
looked  after  the  wardrobes  of  that  section  and,  in  so  far 
as  was  possible,  kept  each  article  of  apparel  in  good 
order.  In  the  assignment  of  duties  for  the  term  the  Eev. 
Mr.  Frothingham,  Mr.  Jackson's  ministerial  associate, 
was  given  the  temporary  charge  of  the  institution,  it 
being  at  that  time  without  a  superintendent,  and  the 
new  missionary  and  his  wife  were  assigned  to  the  third 
department,  which  included  the  largest  and  most  ad- 
vanced boys  of  the  school. 

With  his  usual  alacrity  and  energy,  Sheldon  Jackson 
entered  upon  this  service.  In  a  few  days  after  the  open- 
ing, he  had  enrolled  more  than  thirty  stolid-looking, 
half- tamed  boys,  who  taxed  all  his  energies  in  the  class 
room  and  in  one  way  or  other  absorbed  the  most  of  his 
waking  hours  outside  of  it.  The  routine  of  each  day 
began  at  5  A.  M.,  and  continued  without  break  until  12m., 
when  the  head  of  each  department  carved  and  served  about 
twenty -five  or  thirty  pounds  of  meat  at  the  dinner  table  and 
had  general  oversight  of  the  group  for  which  he  was  re- 
sponsible. From  1  o'clock  until  2.30  P.  M.,  work  in  the 
class  room  was  resumed.  From  2.30  until  5.30  p.  m.  the 
boys  were  employed  in  chopping  wood  under  the  care  of 
the  farmer.  This  brief  interval,  when  not  taken  up  with 
dosing  sick  boys  or  giving  out  medicines  to  visiting 
Choctaws  who  had  sick  ones  in  their  homes,  was  utilized 
in  the  preparation  of  sermons.      At  5.30,  all  were  as- 


THE  CHOCTAW  MISSION  45 

sembled  for  supper  and  eveuiug  prayers.  At  6.30,  Mr. 
Jackson's  group  went  to  their  sitting-room,  where  he 
read  to  them,  and  at  8  o'clock  he  lighted  them  to  their 
bedrooms  and  removed  the  lights. 

The  last  item  in  the  day's  work  was  usually  the  pre- 
paring of  about  fifty  copies  for  the  writing  class.  With 
the  exception  of  Saturday,  when  less  time  was  given  to 
study  and  more  to  washing  clothes,  bathing,  etc.,  this 
was  the  ordinary  occupation  of  each  working  day.  On 
the  Sabbath,  there  were  two  services  and  two  Sabbath 
schools  in  which  all  of  the  missionary  force,  in  one  way 
or  another,  ordinarily  took  part. 

The  founders  of  this  mission  shared  in  the  belief  more 
l)revalent  in  that  day  than  with  us  now,  that  corporal 
punishment  was  one  of  the  most  efficient  aids  to  disci- 
pline in  a  school  of  growing  boys,  and  from  the  beginning 
it  had  been  applied  to  the  rebellious  and  disobedient  of 
all  grades  in  the  Spencer  Academy.  A  letter  to  his  par- 
ents, dated  November  10,  1858,  gives  some  interesting 
items  from  his  own  experience  in  the  matter  of  dis- 
cipline : — 

"My  boys  are  mostly  large,  and  give  me  a  good  deal 
of  trouble.  The  missionaries  here  say  it  was  just  what 
they  had  to  pass  through.  They  like  to  try  a  new  teacher, 
and  they  do  it  in  every  conceivable  way.  Our  surest 
mode  of  discipline  is  whipping.  This  I  dislike  very 
much.  If  you  should  deprive  a  boy  of  his  meal  it  would 
make  a  good  deal  of  noise  in  the  tribe,  but  if  you  should 
whip  liim  until  the  blood  runs  there  would  be  nothing 
said  about  it.  So  I  have  to  whip  them.  It  is  strange 
how  you  can  calm  them  down.  One  of  them  doubled  up 
his  fist  to  intimidate  me,  but  the  only  effect  was  to  secure 
him  a  severer  whipping.  They  are  very  impudent  and 
stubborn,  if  allowed  to  have  their  own  way,  and  some- 
times won't  answer  a  word ;   sometimes  refuse  to  go  to 


46  SHELDON  JACKSON 

class.  One  day,  I  found  under  the  seat  of  one  of  the 
boys  a  large  hunting-knife  whetted  to  a  keen  edge.  I 
took  it  in  keeping  for  him.  Eeceutly  one  of  the  larger 
boys  wrote  me  that  if  I  attempted  to  whip  another  boy, 
he  would  whip  me.  By  the  advice  of  the  other  teachers 
I  took  the  suit  of  clothes  which  belonged  to  him  when  he 
came,  and  calling  him  to  my  room  was  about  to  turn  him 
out,  when  he  broke  down  completely  and  said  he  did  not 
mean  it,  and  promised  good  behaviour  in  the  future,  if  I 
allowed  him  to  stay.  He  afterwards  said  the  same  thing 
before  the  whole  school.  When  we  get  a  superintendent, 
the  bad  cases  are  to  be  turned  over  to  him.  I  wish  we 
could  have  one  soon.     I  can  give  him  work  for  awhile." 

One  is  tempted  to  smile  at  this  very  natural  wish  of  a 
sorely  tried  man.  The  time  of  the  ''more  excellent  way  " 
of  Captain  Pratt,  which  proved  to  be  so  efficient  at  Car- 
lisle, was  not  yet ;  and  even  if  this  way  had  been  intro- 
duced at  that  stage  in  the  Indian  Territory  the  effect 
would  probably  have  been  immediately  disastrous  to  the 
person  introducing  it. 

Mrs.  Jackson's  cooperative  work  was  mainly  along 
domestic  lines,  such  as  sewing,  darning  socks,  distribut- 
ing clothing,  and  dosing  the  sick.  Her  careful  home- 
training,  in  all  the  varied  details  of  household  life  and 
industries,  and  the  heritage  of  health  and  vigour  re- 
ceived from  sturdy  ancestors  of  Holland  stock,  stood  her 
in  good  stead  in  this  initial  venture,  as  well  as  in  the 
later  experiences  of  missionary  life  on  the  frontier. 
Sometimes  it  fell  to  her  lot  to  act  as  a  substitute  for  a  sick 
or  absent  teacher  ;  or  to  engage  in  such  commonplace 
work  as  cleaning  lamps  for  the  chapel,  assorting  clothing 
for  wear  or  for  the  laundry,  and  sundry  duties  of  like 
nature,  when  other  helpers  were  not  at  hand,  but  usually 
the  time  was  fully  occupied  ' '  in  keeping  the  little  Indians 
in  repairs."     At  one  time,  in  an  emergency,  the  work  of 


THE  CHOOTAW  MISSION  4Y 

mending  for  seventy  boys  was  cheerfully  assiimetl.  On 
the  22d  of  December,  Mrs.  Jackson  writes: — ^'I  have 
mended  forty  pairs  of  socks,  twenty  pants,  ten  coats, 
eight  shirts,  this  week,  and  have  not  finished  yet.  But 
I  do  not  mind  it,  as  it  gives  me  but  little  care." 

The  prevalence  of  malarial  diseases  of  the  most  viru- 
lent and  persistent  type  was  one  of  the  discouraging  fea- 
tures connected  with  the  work  at  Spencer.  From  these 
insidious  diseases,  which  frequently  prostrated  the 
scholars  as  well  as  the  teachers,  and,  at  times,  greatly  re- 
duced the  working  force  of  the  mission,  Mary  Jackson 
was  almost  immune.  It  was  not  so,  however,  with  her 
husband.  From  the  lirst  he  suffered  from  deraiigomcnt 
of  the  stomach  and  liver;  and  within  the  brief  space  of 
four  months  had  three  attacks  of  malarial  fever.  It  was 
characteristic  of  the  man  to  keep  at  work,  so  long  as  he 
was  able  to  go  about,  but  when  something  more  than 
three  months  had  passed  awaj'  without  prospect  of  re- 
lief, the  conviction  was  forced  upon  him  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  seek  another  field  of  laboui-.  To  a  greater  extent, 
perhaps,  he  was  influenced  also  by  ilw.  feeling  that  he 
was  not  in  his  i>r<)per  field  of  labour  as  an  ordained 
minister  of  the  Gospel ;  and  that  the  work  to  which  he 
was  giving  his  time  and  strength  almost  exclusively  was 
work  which  a  layman  could  do  quite  as  well,  while  in  the 
great  harvest  field  about  him  the  calls  for  ministerial 
labour  were  pressing  and  urgent.  Moved  by  these  con- 
siderations, he  wiot(^  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  on 
the  Gth  of  January,  1859,  tendering  his  resignation,  to  lake 
efifect  as  early  in  the  spring  as  he  could  be  spared,  with- 
out detriment  to  the  work  of  the  mission.  Before  this 
letter  had  reached  its  destination,  Mr.  Jackson  was  pros- 
trated by  a  serious  attack  of  bilious  fever  and  for  some 
days  was  unfitt<'d  for  activ^e  service. 

After  his  recovery  arrangements  were  made  to  relieve 


48  SHELDON  JACKSON 

liiin  from  the  confining  work  of  the  class  room,  and  from 
this  time  until  he  left  the  reservation  he  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  do  evangelistic  work  in  the  several  stations  of 
the  mission  within  his  reach.  In  the  prosecution  of  this 
work  he  averaged  seven  sermons  and  travelled  about 
seventy  miles  a  week.  For  a  time  his  health  improved 
as  a  result  of  this  active,  outdoor  exercise,  but  with  the 
increasing  heat  of  the  spring  time  the  depressing  effects 
of  the  malaria,  which  seemed  to  poison  his  system,  re- 
turned ;  and  during  the  rest  of  his  stay  gave  him  much 
suffering  and  inconvenience.  Writing  to  his  parents 
on  the  23d  of  February,  he  says: — "After  my  re- 
covery from  illness  at  the  time  my  school  was  given  up, 
I  felt  much  better,  but  for  more  than  a  week  past  I  have 
felt  miserable.  Yesterday  I  was  down  sick  and  took 
medicine.  To-day  I  am  about  again  and  feel  better.  If 
it  were  not  that  Mary  has  her  work  to  do,  with  none  to 
take  it,  I  would  come  north  before  the  hot  weather  sets  in. 
As  it  is  I  shall  probably  remain  and  preach  as  I  am 
doing  at  present." 

Notwithstanding  these  periods  of  illness  and  dejjression, 
Mr.  Jackson  continued  to  preach  without  any  apparent 
abatement  in  energy  or  enthusiasm.  On  several  occa- 
sions, if  not  regularly,  he  j)reached  three  times  and  rode 
twenty  miles  on  the  Sabbath.  On  the  10th  of  March  he 
writes  : — "  Since  the  1st  instant,  Mr.  Evans  has  taken  the 
boys  and  I  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  school.  I 
have  now  six  weekly  preaching  stations  and  three  on  Sab- 
bath. But  this  will  not  last  any  longer  probably,  as  the 
weather  is  becoming  too  warm. ' '  The  following  account 
of  a  communion  service  in  the  month  of  February  gives 
an  inside  view  of  some  of  the  peculiar  experiences  of 
these  brief  but  busy  days  of  evangelistic  work : — 

"  Last  Sabbath  we  had  a  '  big  meeting'  or  communion 
at  Lalibok  station.     I  went  up   on  Friday  afternoon, 


THE  CHOCTAW  MISSION  49 

fording  three  streams  that  were  swollen  with  recent 
showers.  I  got  there  just  before  dark,  and  it  was  an 
interesting  scene.  The  people  were  gathering  in  slowly. 
The  log  meeting-house  stood  on  the  bank  of  the  last 
stream.  It  was  very  amusing  to  watch  the  Indian  boys 
as  they  ferried  over  chairs,  blankets,  provisions,  etc. ,  as 
well  as  men  and  women,  the  water  being  almost  over  the 
ponies'  backs. 

"Near  the  house  were  forty  or  fifty  Indians  gathered 
around  three  camp-fires.  I  was  invited  to  take  supper 
with  them  and  accepted  the  invitation.  The  missiona- 
ries generally  take  their  own  provisions,  but  as  they  all 
say  it  would  be  much  better  to  eat  with  the  people  I  told 
them  I  thought  I  could  live  on  wliat  the  Choctaws  had. 
At  this  time  we  had  coffee,  without  milk  or  sugar  ;  corn 
bread,  baked  in  the  ashes;  roast  ribs  of  pork,  and 
another  nondescript  kind  of  bread.  After  supper,  the 
horn  was  blown  and  the  people  assembled  in  the  log 
church  where  I  preached  through  an  interpreter. 

"The  preacher's  desk  was  a  hewn  log  on  legs,  much 
like  a  carpenter's  horse  and  tlie  house  was  seated  after 
the  same  fashion  with  longer  logs  and  shorter  legs.  After 
the  service  was  over  I  pushed  two  of  the  log  seats 
together, — they  were  only  two  inches  difference  in  height — 
rolled  myself  up  in  my  blanket,  and  had  a  good  sleep. 
About  twenty  persons  slept  in  the  building.  On  the 
floor,  almost  under  me,  was  a  Choctaw  elder  with  his 
wife  and  children  of  various  ages.  I  awoke  about  mid- 
night and  heard  the  Indians  singing  Choctaw  hymns  at 
one  camp  and  at  another  a  voice  in  prayer  or  exhor- 
tation. 

"Saturday  I  again  ate  with  the  Indians,  to  their  evi- 
dent pleasure.  Preached  twice  during  the  forenoon  and 
then  returned  to  Spencer.  On  Sal)l)ath  we  all  went  out 
with  the  scholars  of  the  Spencer  school.     It  was  a  very 


50  SHELDON  JACKSON 

solemn  meeting.  One  Choctaw  who  had  been  a  back- 
slider for  thirteen  years, — and  for  ten  years  a  drunkard — 
was  readmitted.  On  Monday,  our  best  interijreter  left. 
He  is  preparing  to  go  East  to  study  for  the  ministry." 

On  or  about  the  1st  of  April,  in  accordance  with  the 
notice  previously  given,  Sheldon  Jackson  severed  his 
connection  with  the  Choctaw  Mission  and  returned  with 
his  wife  to  Galesburg,  Illinois.  Here  they  remained  un- 
til arrangements  were  made  for  work  in  a  new  field  of 
labour  in  Minnesota. 

The  record  of  work  in  the  Indian  Territory  closes  with 
the  following  statement: — "Early  in  the  spring  it  hav- 
ing become  apj^arent  that  I  could  not  live  in  that  malarial 
climate,  and  there  already  being  signs  of  disturbances 
and  paralysis  of  all  mission  work  that  would  come  from 
the  approaching  contest  between  the  North  and  the  South, 
I  withdrew  from  the  mission  and  went  north  to  Minne- 
sota for  my  health,  entering  the  service  of  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions." 


IV 

LA  CRESCENT  AND  THE  REGIONS  AROUND 

"  God's  work  is  one  eternal  sphere  : 
Our  work,  a  segment  of  His  work 
And  he,  whose  spirit-eye  is  clear, 
Whose  ready  will  no  load  wonld  shirk 
May  read  his  name  divinely  writ 
Upon  the  work  for  him  most  fit. ' ' 

— A.  T.  Pier  son. 

THE  first  commission  given  to  Sheldon  Jackson 
bj^  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  was  issued  on 
the  application,  and  by  the  recommendation  ol' 
tlie  Presbytery  of  St.  Paul. 

The  field  of  labour  designated  in  this  commission  wsis 
the  territory  to  the  north  of  St.  Anthony's  Falls.  This 
was  a  territory  of  indefinite  bounds,  says  Dr.  Jackson, 
and  meant  much  or  little  according  to  the  person  who 
executed  it.  He  could  have  given  his  time  to  a  few  set- 
tlements on  the  Mississippi  River  north  of  St.  Anthony, 
or  if  he  had  the  strength  could  have  travelled  across  to 
the  Pacific  coast.  "I  distinctly  remember  that  I  was 
planning  to  make  Alexandria,  about  160  miles  north- 
west of  St.  Anthony,  headquarters.  Alexandria  was 
then  on  the  outermost  fringe  of  white  settlements.  Cir- 
cumstances, however,  led  me  to  decline  the  commission." 

With  a  view  to  seeking  a  field  of  labour  somewhere  in 
this  part  of  the  N^orthwest,  Mr.  Jackson  left  Galesburg, 
with  his  wife,  in  the  month  of  July,  1859.  His  objective 
point  was  Winona,  Minn. ,  where  he  had  an  appointment 
to  meet  the  Rev.  David  C.  Lyon,  a  man  of  like  spirit  and 

51 


52  SHELDON  JACKSON 

devotioD,  who  was  anxious  to  secure  him  as  a  co-labourer 
in  that  portion  of  the  state.  A  visit  with  Mr.  Lyon  to 
some  of  the  needy  and  rapidly  growing  sections  in  the 
outlying  districts  resulted  in  the  selection  of  La  Crescent, 
on  the  Mississippi  River,  as  a  centre  of  missionary  oper- 
ations. As  soon  thereafter  as  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments could  be  made  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jackson  removed 
from  their  temporary  home,  with  Mr.  Lyon  to  this  place. 
On  the  recommendation  of  the  Presbytery  of  Winnebago, 
Wisconsin,  a  commission  was  given  for  this  field  which 
reads  as  follows  : — 

This  is  to  certify  that  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  acting 
under  the  authority  of  and  by  the  order  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  on  the  appHcation  of  the  churches  of  La  Crescent, 
Hokah,  and  vicinity,  Minnesota ;  and  by  the  recommendation 
of  the  Presbytery  of  Winnebago,  have  appropriated  the  sum  of 
Three  hundred  (^300)  Dollars,  to  aid  in  the  support  of  the 
Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson  as  Pastor  or  stated  supply  of  such 
churches.  This  appropriation  is  for  twelve  months,  and  to 
commence, 

In  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions, 

(Signed)  John  McDowell,  President. 
G.  W.  MusGRAVE,  Cor.-Sec'y, 

Mission  Rooms,  910  Arch  St.,  Phila.,  Sept.  5,  1859. 

There  are  two  notable  things  on  the  face  of  this 
commission  : 

First, — The  churches  named  in  it  were  non-existent  at 
the  date  of  its  issue,  or,  in  other  words,  they  were  not  yet 
organized. 

Second, — The  scant  allowance  of  salary  named  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  field  was  undeveloped  and  the  work 
unusually  laborious.  In  this  situation,  the  only  visible 
supj)ort  on  which  the  missionary  could  count  with  cer- 
tainty was  the  meagre  aj)propriation  of  the  Board.    It 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     53 

depended  largely  iij)on  himself  whether  he  could  secure 
anything  additional  for  the  support  of  his  family,  or  the 
necessary  expenses  connected  with  the  prosecution  of  his 
work.  In  justice  to  the  officers  of  the  Board  it  should  be 
said,  however,  that  this  insufficient  allowance  was  made 
mainly  because  of  the  straitened  condition  of  the  gen- 
eral fund.  The  need  for  aggressive  work  on  the  western 
frontier  was  not  realized,  at  that  time,  by  the  Church  at 
large,  and  new  ventures  were  not  encouraged,  for  the 
reason  that  the  funds  in  the  treasuiy  were  insufficient  to 
meet  the  wants  of  the  churches  already  established. 
When  at  a  later  i^eriod  this  crying  need  was  emphasized 
by  men  at  the  front,  who  came  East  to  tell  their  story, 
the  response  was  prompt  and  generous.  Happily  for  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  the  men  who  represented  heron  the 
frontier  at  this  critical  time  were  not  unduly  influenced 
by  selfish  considerations ;.  and,  although  apparently  for- 
gotten and  hampered  on  every  hand  for  lack  of  means, 
they  loyally  remained  at  their  posts.  They  did  not 
gauge  the  value  of  their  work  by  the  pittance  they  re- 
ceived to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door,  but  they  toiled  in 
hope,  well  knowing  that  the  fruitage  of  the  coming  years 
would  bring  a  glorious  reward. 

La  Crescent  was  a  village  of  fifty  or  sixty  houses  when 
Mr.  Jackson  selected  it  as  the  centre  of  his  missionary 
operations  and  at  that  time  the  whole  laud  to  the  south  and 
west  was  destitute  of  gospel  privileges.  There  was  as  yet 
no  church  ])uilding  in  the  ]>lace,  but  he  was  permitted  to  use 
the  schoolhouse  for  religious  services  until  a  house  of 
worship  was  erected.  For  his  own  residence  he  secured 
a  little  frame  building — eighteen  by  twenty-four  feet  in 
dimensions, — and  as  soon  as  some  necessary  repairs  were 
made,  he  moved  his  belongings  into  it.  Here  his  young 
wife  took  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  household,  and  with 
rare  courage  and  devotion  ''tarried  by  the  stuff"  while 


54  SHELDON  JACKSON 

her  husbaud  was  absent  ou  liis  loug  and  almost  continu- 
ous missionary  journeys. 

The  crisp,  clear  atmosphere  of  Minnesota  proved  an 
admirable  counteractive  to  the  malarial  poisons  of  the 
Indian  Territory  ;  and  its  tonic  inHuence  gave  wings 
to  long  cherished  inclinations  and  aspirations,  which 
hitherto  had  been  rejpressed  by  infirmities  and  limita- 
tions. Here,  at  leugth,  Sheldon  Jackson  found  his  mis- 
sion. From  this  date,  by  Divine  ordering  and  ordina- 
tion, he  became  a  missionary  bishop  to  the  ''regions  be- 
yond." Interjireting  his  commission  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  and  intent  of  the  "  Great  Commission  "  he  did 
not  confine  his  labours  to  county  lines  or  presbyterial 
bounds,  but  carried  the  bread  of  life  to  the  needy  across 
the  river  among  the  new  settlements  of  Wisconsin,  as 
well  as  to  the  perishing  in  the  regions  more  directly  un- 
der his  care  in  Minnesota. 

Eeplyiug  to  a  question  with  respect  to  his  understand- 
ing of  the  extent  of  his  field  at  that  time,  Dr.  Jackson 
says  : — 

''The  commission  of  September  5,  1859,  was  in- 
tended mainly  for  La  Crescent,  Hokah,  and  vicinity, 
meaning  the  schoolhouses  within  five  or  six  miles 
around,  but  I  interpreted  it  to  mean  every  community 
that  I  could  reach,  and  consequently  it  extended  a  hun- 
dred miles  or  so  around,  reaching  from  Chippewa  Falls 
in  Wisconsin, — 120  miles  from  La  Crescent — to  Jackson 
in  Minnesota,  a  distance,  as  the  roads  ran,  of  340  to  370 
miles." 

In  Minnesota,  this  preaching  circuit  included  the  coun- 
ties of  Houston,  Filmore,  Mower,  Freeborn,  Faribault, 
Martin,  Jackson,  Waseca,  Steele,  Dodge,  Olmstead, 
Wabash  and  Winona ;  in  Wisconsin,  the  counties  of 
Chippewa,  Eau  Claire,  Jackson,  Trempeleau,  and  La 
Crosse. 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     55 

This  district  as  a  whole  covered  an  area  of  nearly  13, 000 
square  miles,  a  parish  as  large  as  the  state  of  Maryland. 
His  field  in  Minnesota  included  for  a  time  nineteen 
preaching  places,  the  extremes  of  which  were  more  than 
100  miles  apart.     Never  before,  it  may  be  confidently 

.  affirmed,  did  a  home  mission  appropriation,  of  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year,  provide  for  the  spiritual  wants  of 

;  a  territory  so  vast,  or  accomplish  so  much  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  churches  and  the  bestowment  of  gospel  privi- 
leges. In  this  Presbyterian  Diocese  of  magnificent  pro- 
l)ortious  the  little  towns  and  neighbourhood  groups  were 

!  visited  and  canvassed,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  supplied 
with  preaching  at  stated  intervals,  usually  once  a  month. 
At  every  place,  as  opportunity  afforded,  the  sick  were 
visited,  the  dead  were  buried,  the  wandering  ones  were 
sought  out,  and  ofttimes  reclaimed,  the  little  ones  were 
gathered  into  neighbourhood  Sabbath-schools,  religious 
books  and  papers  were  supplied,  family  altars  were  set  • 
up,  the  poor  had  the  Gospel  preached  to  them ;  and, 
wherever  three  or  four  of  Presbyterian  lineage  or  church 
connection  were  discovered,  they  were  put  into  position 
to  receive  the  regular  ministrations  of  the  word  or  were 
organized  at  once  into  churches.  When  at  length  pastors 
and  supplies  were  found  for  these  remote  groups  and 
growing  towns,  the  territory  of  this  itinerant  missionary 
was,  to  that  extent  curtailed,  but  he  still  continued  to  serve 
tliem  in  securing  funds  for  their  houses  of  worship,  litera- 
ture for  their  homes  and  Sabbath -schools,  missionary  boxes 
for  their  ministers  ;  and,  ofttimes  through  influence  wath 
friends  in  the  East,  permanent  supplies  for  their  pulpits. 
From  memoranda  which  furnished  the  basis  of  Sheldon 
Jackson's  quarterly  reports  to  the  Board,  we  cite  the  fol- 
lowing summaiy  of  active  labours  for  the  first  six  months, 
or  rather,  from  July  19,  1859,  to  January  1,  1860,  in  La 
Crescent  and  the  regions  beyond  : — 


66 


SHELDON  JACKSON 


Whole  number  of  miles  travelled  . 
Whole  number  of  miles  walked  . 
Number  of  appointments  met  . 

Number  of  hearers 

Contributions. — General  Benevolence 
Contributions. — Church  Collections 

Churches  organized 

Membership  of  Churches  organized  . 


1, 080 

400 

70 

2,200 

$18.00 

$2.33 

3 

18 


For  the  next  quarter  (January  1st  to  April  1st,  1860), 
which  covers  the  most  severe  and  inclement  portion  of 
the  year,  the  record  is  : — 


Whole  number  of  miles  travelled  . 
Whole  number  of  miles  walked  . 
Number  of  appointments  met  . 

Number  of  hearers 

Contributions.  — General  Benevolence 
Contributions.  — Church  Collections 


1,043 

233 

64 

1,858 

^3-98 
$7.60 


From  the  last  statement  it  appears  that  the  average  dis- 
tance" travelled  during  this  quarter, — by  sleigh,  on  horse- 
back or  on  foot, — was  nearly  thirteen  and  a  half  miles  per 
day,  while  the  appointments  filled  averaged  about  five 
per  week.  These  tedious  journeys  through  new  and  un- 
developed regions,  which  for  the  most  part  were  made 
alone,  were  attended  with  many  discomforts,  dangers  and 
hardships.  One  day  this  Presbyterian  circuit  rider 
preached  twice  by  previous  appointment  and  rode  home 
by  moonlight  when  the  thermometer  registered  28°  below 
zero  ;  on  another  occasion  it  was  15°  below  zero.  On  the.se 
and  other  journeys,  to  which  reference  is  made  in  his 
diary,  his  hands,  or  feet,  or  the  exjiosed  portions  of  his 
face  were  frequently  frost-bitten,  before  he  was  aware  of 
the  intensity  of  the  cold. 

To  meet  a  series  of  prearranged  engagements  in  the  win- 
ter months  in  the  most  favourable  conditions  of  Minnesota 


I.  Filling  a  niiiUvinteT  appointment.  2.  Presbyterian  Church.  La 
Crescent,  Minn.  3.  Presljvterian  Church.  Roclicster,  Minn.  The  first 
two  churches  erected  by  Sheldon  Jackson,  and  the  only  ones  over 
which  he  had  pastoral  care. 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     57 

climate,  meant  the  resolute  facing  of  piercing  winds  and 
blinding  storms,  or  the  weary  plodding  through  drifting 
snow-banks  which  ofttimes  obscured  the  way  and  utterly 
bewildered  the  mind  with  respect  to  location  and  dis- 
tance. Mention  is  made  of  a  cold  ride  to  presbytery 
with  Mrs.  Jackson  when  they  were  lost  three  or  four 
times  in  one  day,  and  for  twenty-seven  miles  of  that  jour- 
ney did  not  see  a  single  human  habitation.  On  the  return 
journey,  after  a  breakdown  in  the  sleigh  because  of  the 
condition  of  the  roads,  the  route  was  so  obscured  that 
they  missed  it  and  for  four  hoars  wandered  around  among 
the  hills  in  the  darkness  before  a  place  of  shelter  for  the 
night  was  reached.  This  trip  with  its  detours  occupied 
nine  days.  There  are  records,  also,  of  long  journeys  to 
preaching  stations  where  only  a  few  were  present,  or 
where  the  house  was  so  cold  that  the  service  could  not  be 
held  with  comfort  or  safety.  At  the  breakiug  up  of  the 
winter  season  the  melting  snows,  and  the  rains  which  fre- 
quently hastened  the  clearing  away  of  long-standing 
deposits  of  ice  and  snow,  flooded  all  the  meadows  and 
lowlands,  making  the  roads  in  some  sections  almost  im- 
passable and  the  fording  places  of  the  streams  uncertain 
and  insecure. 

On  one  occasion,  while  returning  in  a  sleigh  from  a 
preaching  tour  in  Wisconsin,  in  the  latter  part  of  March, 
1860,  a  warm  spell  of  weather  with  rain  for  a  day  or  two, 
was  followed  by  a  cold  wave  on  the  afternoon  of  the  Sab- 
bath, but  this  did  not  hinder  him  from  fdling  his  appoint- 
ments. On  the  Monday  following,  he  started  for  home 
and  found  all  the  approaches  to  the  bridges  in  the  low- 
lauds  overflowed  with  water  and  the  dijGQculty  experienced 
in  crossing  them  was  increased  by  stretches  of  brittle  ice 
which  had  formed  on  either  side  of  the  bridges  from  the 
shore.  At  one  point  where  he  entered  the  water,  which 
was  overflowing  the  road  at  both  ends  of  a  bridge,  the 


58  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ice  gave  way  readily,  but  when  he  came  to  the  outreach- 
ing  sheet  of  ice  on  the  farther  shore  the  water  was  breast 
diaep  and  the  horse  could  not  secure  a  footing  upon  it. 
■The. only  way  out  of  this  hapless  predicament  was  by  a 
path  through  the  ice  and  in  order  to  make  it  he  was 
obliged  to  get  out  into  the  water,  and  break  enough  of  the 
jagged  edges  of  the  icy  barrier  to  allow  the  horse  and 
sleigh  to  pass  through.  In  doing  this,  his  clothiug  was 
soaked  with  water.  After  reaching  the  land,  he  had  to 
drive  several  miles  to  the  first  log  cabin  by  the  wayside 
and  when  it  was  reached  his  overcoat  was  so  firmly  frozen 
that  he  could  not  unfasten  it  until  he  stood  before  the  fire- 
place and  thawed  it  out.  When  his  undergarments 
could  be  removed  he  was  put  to  bed,  while  the  good  folks 
.  Qf. the  house  dried  his  clothes.  ^  .      .  ,  ..,•,•,. 

Mrs.  M.  E.  Andrews,  of  Portland,  Oregon,  who  was  in- 
timately associated  with  Sheldon  Jacksoir-in  missionary 
and  educational  work  in  Minnesota,  contributes  the  fol- 
lowing reminiscence,  under  date  of  March  15,  1906  : — 

I  first  met  Mr.  Jackson  in  the  spring  of  i86i,  in  the  village 
of  La  Crescent,  Minnesota,  where  he  had  recently  settled  after 
giving  up  missionary  work  among  the  Choctaws. 

There  were  few  professing  Christians  in  La  Crescent  at  that 
time,  and  no  Presbyterians.  It  was,  therefore,  not  strange  that 
the  coming  of  a  Presbyterian  family  should  be  given  a  warm 
welcome  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jackson,  especially  as  the  family 
came  for  the  purpose  of  opening  a  school. 

It  was  in  this  little  village  that  the  great  work  which  Mr. 
Jackson  has  accomplished  for  home  missions  was  begun,  under 
circumstances  of  such  difficulty  and  discouragement  that  one 
with  less  courage  would  not  have  succeeded. 

Mr.  Jackson  was  quick  to  see  the  possibility  of  good  results 
in  the  future,  as  well  as  urgent  need  in  the  present.  With  him, 
opportunity  was  inspiration.  Loyalty  to  God,  strong  faith,  zeal 
and  power  of  endurance  led  him  to  encounter  danger  and  pri- 
vation to  the  extent  (his  friends  often  thought)  of  recklessness. 

The  severe  winter  climate  of  Minnesota,  the  unsettled  state 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     59 

of  the  country  at  that  time,  caused  by  the  Civil  War — and  the 
Indian  Massacre  of  1862 — made  the  missionary's  life  one  of 
hardship  and  self-denial.  Travel  by  stage  in  summer  and  by 
sleigh  in  winter  w^as  the  only  way  settlements  on  the  frontier 
could  be  reached,  often  requiring  days  and  weeks  of  absence 
from  home,  leaving  the  missionary's  wife  lonely  and  anxious, 
to  care  for  the  home  and  children. 

The  work  of  reaching  out  to  destitute  places  deeply  inter- 
ested Mr.  Jackson ;  his  great  desire  was  that  every  part  of  the 
country  should  be  given  educational  and  gospel  privileges,  and 
to  this  exid  he  gave  his  time  and  energies,  regardless  of  personal 
cost. 

His  confidence  in  the  success  of  God's  Kingdom  seemed  to 
inspire  confidence  in  others.  Appealing  for  aid  his  plea  was — 
"  Privilege  to  share  in  the  Lord's  work,"  and  such  was  his 
power  to  impress  others  with  this  truth,  that  his  appeals  were 
seldom  denied. 

Many  instances  could  be  given  showing  the  dangers  and 
hardships  encountered  by  Mr.  Jackson  in  his  efforts  to  reach 
distant  places  with  the  Gospel.  I  accompanied  him  at  one 
time  when  he  was  to  hold  evening  service  in  a  village  twelve  or 
fourteen  miles  distant  from  home.  We  started  on  Sunday  af- 
ternoon in  December,  a  mild  day  for  that  time  of  year,  such  as 
sometimes  occurs  before  a  severe  storm.  The  ground  was  cov- 
ered with  snow  and  the  sky  overcast  with  clouds.  When  but 
a  short  distance  on  our  journey,  snow  began  to  fall  and  con- 
tinued until  we  reached  the  village. 

By  the  time  evening  service  was  over  it  was  evident  we  had 
encountered  a  "  Minnesota  Blizzard."  The  following  morning 
the  snow  almost  reached  the  tops  of  the  doors  and  windows. 
Fearing  we  might  become  snowbound,  preparation  was  made 
for  starting  home  as  early  as  possible.  Friends  urged  difficulty 
of  travel  over  unbroken  roads  and  danger  of  freezing  should  the 
cold  increase.  Mr.  Jackson  insisted  upon  returning  without 
delay. 

We  found  soon  after  starting  that  we  must  travel  at  a  slow 
pace,  as  the  freshly  fallen  snow  came  almost  to  the  shoulders 
of  the  horse  and  into  the  sleigh.  We  were  hardly  out  of  sight 
of  the  village  before  Mr.  Jackson  attempted  to  break  a  way  by 
walking  in  front  of  the  horse,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he 
found  that  his  strength  was  not  equal  to  his  determination — he 
was  overcome  with  fatigue — we  must  trust  to  the  strength  of  the 


60  SHELDON  JACKSON 

horse,  which  was  most  discouraging,  as  he  already  showed  lack 
of  strength. 

Late  in  the  day  we  had  travelled  but  a  short  distance,  not 
having  gone  half-way  to  the  stage  road.  About  twilight  we 
encountered  a  deep  drift  of  snow  through  which  the  horse  could 
not  drag  the  sleigh.  Trembling  with  fatigue,  he  refused  to  take 
another  step.  As  night  was  coming  on,  Mr.  Jackson  must  go 
in  search  of  help — I  must  remain  in  the  sleigh,  while  he  would 
go  on  the  horse  to  find  a  place  of  shelter.  There  was  no  sign 
of  habitation,  only  a  vast  field  of  snow  as  far  as  we  could  see, 
with  a  bleak  sky  above,  while  about  us  was  an  overpowering 
silence,  such  as  is  only  caused  by  intense  cold  in  a  desolate 
region. 

After  an  hour's  absence,  Mr.  Jackson  returned,  having  found, 
a  mile  away,  a  Norwegian  hut — with  father  and  five  children 
who  could  speak  but  little  English,  but  who  would  give  us 
shelter.  Hoping  to  find  a  more  comfortable  place,  Mr.  Jackson 
went  some  distance  beyond,  where  he  found  the  home  of  a 
German ;  here  we  were  refused  shelter  or  any  assistance  that 
night.  We  decided  to  go  to  the  Norwegian  hut.  The  sleigh 
must  be  left  until  the  next  day — Mr.  Jackson  would  walk  and  I 
ride  the  horse.  In  this  way,  we  started  but  had  gone  but  a 
iittle  way  when,  on  looking  back,  I  saw  Mr.  Jackson  disappear 
almost  entirely  from  sight  in  the  depths  of  snow.  Fearing  he 
would  become  exhausted,  I  urged  him  to  share  the  horse  with 
me  ;  with  reluctance  he  at  last  consented  to  do  so  by  getting  up 
behind  me. 

A  bitter  cold  wind  was  blowing — by  the  time  the  hut  was 
reached  we  were  in  a  frame  of  mind  to  appreciate  shelter  and 
comfort,  if  not  of  the  choicest.  Shelter  and  food  were  asked 
for  the  horse.  Neither  could  be  furnished — there  was  not  a 
place  where  the  horse  could  be  tied  but  to  the  door,  not  a  tree 
or  shrub  was  in  sight.  With  such  exposure  the  horse  would 
die — we  must  go  on  to  the  next  house  and  insist  on  having 
shelter. 

Suffering  intensely  from  cold,  we  reached  the  place  and 
asked  the  privilege  of  sitting  by  the  fire  through  the  night  and 
also  a  place  of  shelter  for  the  horse.  On  learning  that  Mr. 
Jackson  was  a  minister,  we  were  given  a  warm  welcome ;  a 
good  supper  was  provided,  and  a  place  for  sleeping — I  to  share 
a  bed  with  the  mother  and  baby,  vv-hile  a  bed  was  arranged  for 
Mr.  Jackson  and  the  man  of  the  house  in  an  unoccupied  room, 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     61 

made  comfortable  by  the  use  of  hot  rocks.  The  older  children 
slept  on  sacks,  filled  with  straw,  in  front  of  the  fire.  The  horse 
was  given  food  and  shelter  in  a  shed  adjoining  the  house. 

Our  narrow  escape  from  freezing  was  realized  the  next  day, 
when  we  reached  home  late  and  learned  of  the  severe  cold  all 
over  the  state ;  many  sheep  and  cattle  perished  and  a  number 
of  people  were  frozen  to  death. 

Being  reserved  in  manner  and  speech,  Mr.  Jackson  was 
sometimes  misjudged  by  those  who  knew  him  slightly  and  who 
thought  him  unsympathetic,  but  few  were  more  thoughtful  of 
others  than  he  or  more  ready  and  watchful  to  do  a  kindness,  as 
many  who  remember  his  favours,  with  gratitude,  could  tesitfy. 
There  were  times  when  his  home  became  a  distributing  agency 
of  supplies  and  comforts,  obtained  by  him  to  relieve  the  need 
felt  in  homes  on  the  frontier. 


The  joy  of  tliis  pioneer  service,  despite  its  trials  and 
hardships  ;  its  importance  at  this  crisis  period  ;  and  its 
abundant  compensations  for  every  hour  of  toil  and  self- 
denial  are  hapi^ily  set  forth  in  the  following  extracts  from 
letters  written  to  his  parents.  The  first  is  dated  February 
13,  18G0  :— 

"On  the  5th  inst,  after  preaching  at  Hokali  in  the 
afternoon  I  rode  Mr.  Pidge's  horse  six  miles  to  Mound 
Prairie,  where  I  preached  in  the  evening.  Monday  I 
cauglit  a  ride  to  Caledonia,  fourteen  miles,  where  I 
preached  in  the  evening.  Tuesday  went  on  fourteen 
miles  farther,  and  preached  in  the  evening  to  about  fifteen 
in  a  private  house.  Wednesday  went  fourteen  miles 
farther  west  to  Richland  Prairie.  Got  there  tired  and 
disheartened.  I  had  tlie  promise  of  a  horse  beforehand 
from  Mr.  Cameron,  but  he  Avas  taken  sick  before  I  started. 
As  my  appointment  had  been  out  for  a  month — and  I 
have  not  yet  missed  one — I  had  to  set  out  on  foot.  It  used 
to  seem  quite  a  feat  to  walk  to  Minaville,  or  Esperance, 
but  here  six  or  seven  miles  is  nothing,  and  my  last  trip 
was  110  miles.     Of  that  I  walked  eighty,  and  caught  a 


62  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ride  of  about  thirty,  I  reached  Eichland  Prairie  "Wednes- 
day noon  and  went  to  the  house  of  Wni.  Elder,  a  Presby- 
terian, to  whom  I  had  written  to  make  me  an  appoint- 
ment. 

"Found  them  expecting  me,  house  cleaned  uj),  folks 
cleaned  up.  Soon  after  the  neighbours  began  to  gather 
in,  to  see  'a  live  Presbyterian  minister,'  and  there  was  a 
large  company  to  tea.  In  the  evening,  about  thiity  at- 
tended the  preaching  service.  After  the  service  they 
were  loath  to  separate,  some  staying  till  midnight.  These 
people  seemed  so  rejoiced  that  they  hardly  knew  how  to 
contain  themselves.  It  was  the  first  Presbyterian  sermon 
they  had  heard  since  they  came  into  the  country.  They 
were  anxious  for  a  minister,  but  did  not  know  where  to 
look  for  one.  In  their  extremity,  they  were  talking  of 
sending  to  Scotland  for  one.  Oh,  that  God's  people  would 
be  more  in  earnest  to  increase  the  number  of  labourers  in 
His  vineyard.  I  could  only  promise  to  visit  them  occa- 
sionally on  a  week  day.  As  far  as  I  could  ascertain, 
there  were  some  fifteen  Scotch  families  on  farms  in  that 
neighbourhood,  most  of  the  adults  being  members  of  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland.  On  Thursday  I  left  them  with 
much  regret.  When  I  meet  such  people  I  forget  all  my 
weariness  and  trials  and  bless  God  for  permitting  me  to 
be  a  border  missionary.  Though  I  have  very  hard  work, 
with  scarcely  any  pay  and  many  trials  and  dangers,  I 
would  not  exchange  places  with  the  most  favoured  min- 
ister in  New  York  State,  and  I  often  wish  I  were  equal  to 
three,  one  to  study,  one  to  visit,  and  one  to  preach  all  the 
time. 

"Thursday  I  walked  twenty-two  miles.  My  arm,  my 
nose  and  one  side  of  my  face,  were  frost-bitten.  The  day 
was  clear,  cold,  and  windy,  air  exhilarating.  Did  not 
seem  any  trouble  to  walk,  and  did  not  feel  tired,  but  Fri- 
day morning  found  myself  very  stiff  and  sore.     Visited 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     63 

and  hunted  up  several  families  (Scotch),  and  walked 
eight  miles,  preaching  in  the  evening.  Saturday  they 
took  me  down  to  Houston,  where  I  have  an  appointment 
for  twelve  monthly  services.  From  there  I  walked  down 
to  Hokah,  arriving  about  sundown,  not  tired,  but  lame 
and  sore.  Yesterday  (Sabbath)  I  rode  Mr.  Pidge's  horse 
to  La  Crescent  and  back.  After  preaching  here,  went 
out  four  miles  to  a  country  neighbourhood." 

On  the  29th  of  February,  he  writes  :  "  Monday  night  I 
preached  at  Diesbach  City.  Tuesday  morning  walked 
down  in  the  rain  over  eight  miles  ;  went  home,  got  on  dry 
clothes  and  took  the  stage  for  Winona.  The  rain  turned 
to  snow,  and  we  had  a  long,  tedious  ride  of  forty  miles 
through  the  mud  and  snow.  They  brought  me  up  free 
of  charge.  I  expect  to  return  on  Friday  with  Brother 
Lyon's  horse,  the  use  of  which  I  have  secured  for  two  or 
three  weeks.  If  you  or  Brother  Candee  know  or  hear  of 
any  minister  of  the  right  stamp  desiiing  a  missionary 
field,  I  wish  you  would  give  me  his  name  and  address. 
We  want  very  much  three  more  men  in  our  field." 

A  little  later — March  20th — he  wrote:  ''I  am  in  the 
enjoyment  of  usual  health.  Last  week,  I  took  an  ex- 
tended tour  of  175  miles  back  in  the  country,  meeting 
with  much  encouragement  and  preaching  every  day.  At 
one  place  a  list  of  fifteen  communicant  members  were  se- 
cured with  a  view  to  the  organization  of  a  Presbyterian 
Church.  At  another,  I  found  ten  communicants ;  at  a 
third,  eight  or  more  ;  at  a  fourth,  seven  or  eight.  Three 
of  tlicse  were  places  never  before  visited.  It  is  a  great 
privilege  to  be  the  first  to  meet  these  people  in  their  new 
homes,  and  the  first  minister  of  their  own  persuasion  re- 
ceives a  warmer  welcome  than  any  after-comer  gets.  On 
Satin-day  I  gave  my  new  horse,  which  I  pui'chased  on  this 
round,  a  good  trial,  riding  him  fortj'-five  miles  and  lead- 
ing Mr.  Lyon's  horse.     When  I  reached  La  Crescent,  I 


64:  SHELDON  JACKSON 

learned  with  great  regret  that  Stella  Mercer  had  died  and 
had  been  buiicd  in  my  absence.  She  was  perfectly  con- 
scious in  her  last  hours,  and  left  uncommonly  clear  evi- 
dence of  faith  in  Christ.  She  was  twelve  years  old,  but 
spoke  and  acted  like  an  adult.  It  was  a  beautiful  death- 
bed scene  ;  and,  thauk  God,  has  not  been  without  its  re- 
sults. The  Spirit  is  hovering  over  us,  and  it  is  our  ear- 
nest prayer  that  He  may  not  pass  without  granting  us  a 
blessing.  Yesterday  I  found  Colonel  Mercer,  the  strong 
man  bowed  as  a  child,  and  I  think  I  left  him  with  a 
wavering  hope.  It  seems  too  good  to  him  to  be  true  that 
there  is  any  hope  for  him.  He  has  erected  the  family 
altar  and  is  anxious  to  do  something  for  the  cause.  To- 
day I  found  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Snow  anxiously  inquiring,  and 
Mr.  and  ]\Irs.  Lapham  are  serious.  Oh,  remember  us  that 
these  clouds  may  not  pass  over  without  a  time  of  refresh- 
ing. I  trust  that  the  winter  has  passed  and  we  are  soon  to 
have  a  spring  season  of  the  soul.  Oh,  that  the  Lord 
would  here  work  !  " 

A  few  months  after  his  arrival  in  Minnesota,  Sheldon 
Jackson  assisted  in  the  formation  of  a  County  Sabbath 
School  Association,  and  was  elected  its  first  president. 
He  was  an  efficient  agent  also  in  extending  the  influence 
and  distributing  the  publications  of  the  Bible  and  Tract 
Societies,  and  for  a  time,  without  giving  up  his  preaching 
services,  acted  as  a  field  agent  of  the  Board  of  Pablica- 
tion. 

In  the  spring  of  1860  he  was  sent  as  a  commissioner  to 
the  Geuei-al  Assembly,  Avhich  met  at  Eochester,  New 
York.  In  selecting  him  as  their  representative  at  this 
time,  after  only  a  few  months'  service  among  them,  his 
brethren  of  the  presbytery  were  solicitous,  above  all  other 
considerations,  to  secure  labourers  for  the  vast  stretches 
of  territory  within  and  beyond  their  bounds  which  were 
as  yet  destitute  of  gospel  privileges.     As  the  result  of  his 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     05 

efforts,  three  or  four  ministers  were  persuaded  to  come  to 
their  help  during  the  year  ;  and  wherever  he  had  oppor- 
tunity he  voiced  the  call  of  this  pioneer  band  and  pleaded 
their  cause. 

The  outbreaking  of  the  Civil  "War  in  the  spring  of  1861, 
arrested  the  aggressive  work  of  the  Church  on  the  frontier, 
and  made  it  exceedingly  difiicult  to  hold  the  points  already 
occupied.  In  response  to  an  urgent  call  for  volunteers  at 
the  front  in  connection  with  the  work  of  the  United  States 
Christian  Commission,  Sheldon  Jackson  accepted  a  tem- 
porary appointment,  under  direction  of  this  organiza- 
tion, in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  His  commission, 
signed  by  George  H.  Stuart,  was  dated  August  4,  1863, 
but  he  i)robably  anticipated  its  arrival  a  day  or  two,  for 
on  the  6th  of  August  he  wrote  to  his  wife  from  Louisville, 
Ky.,  en  route  to  his  post  of  labour  in  Tennessee. 

With  hearty  enthusiasm  he  entered  upon  this  work, 
preaching  frequently  to  Union  soldiers  and  Confederate 
prisoners,  holding  prayer-meetings,  distributing  Bibles 
and  tracts,  and  caring  for  the  sick  and  the  dying.  From 
Winchester,  Tcnn.,  he  wrote  August  8th  : 

''The  two  churches  are  crowded  every  evening,  and 
quite  a  number  rise  for  prayer.  We  think  of  opening 
another  church  this  week,  so  as  to  have  three  meetings 
each  evening.  It  is  a  constant  source  of  surprise  to  me  to 
see  how  much  religious  interest  there  is  in  this  army.  I 
have  not  seen  a  drunken  soldier  since  I  have  been  here. 
Sabbath  was  as  quiet  as  in  La  Crosse." 

This  ministry  which  promised  so  well  was  cut  short  by 
illness  in  his  family.  On  this  account  he  was  constrained 
to  tender  his  resignation  at  the  close  of  two  months  of 
field  service.  Soon  after  his  arrival  at  home,  he  had  a 
long  and  severe  attack  of  typhus  fever,  contracted  while 
in  the  army.  In  the  critical  stage  of  tliis  disease,  his 
physicians  despaired  of  saving  his  life  ;  but  his  work  was 


66  SHELDON  JACKSON 

not  yet  done,  and  in  due  time  lie  was  fully  restored  to 
liealtli  and  strength. 

With  La  Crescent  as  a  centre  he  continued  his  itinerant 
minislry  with  unabated  interest  for  five  years,  except  the 
brief  term  he  spent  in  the  service  of  the  Christian  Com- 
mission. This  period  covered  four  years  of  the  Civil  War, 
and  it  was  a  time  of  unusual  hardship  and  distress  in  the 
homes  of  the  missionaries  on  the  frontier.  The  treasury 
of  the  Home  Board  of  the  Old  School  branch,  under 
which  Jackson  and  his  associates  were  serving,  was  for  a 
time  almost  reduced  to  baukrui)tcy.  The  appropriations, 
hitherto  pitifully  small,  were  reduced  about  one-third, 
and  the  commissions  were  issued  for  six  months  only. 
During  this  period  of  distress,  and  for  all  the  years  fol- 
lowing while  he  remained  in  Minnesota,  Sheldon  Jackson 
interested  himself  to  secure  from  every  available  source 
boxes  of  clothing  and  additional  funds,  to  supplement  the 
salaries  of  the  missionaries  of  his  presbytery  and  synod. 
This  free  will  offering,  which  at  the  time  was  discouraged 
by  the  Board,  was  designated  as  the  ''Eaven  Fund"'; 
and  many  a  faithful  prophet  of  the  Lord,  refusing  to  leave 
his  post  under  the  stress  of  threatened  famine  or  failure 
to  meet  obligations,  had  cause  to  bless  God  for  this  timely 
manifestation  of  His  providential  care.  The  record  of 
the  gathering  and  distribution  of  this  fund  is  preserved 
in  a  little  leather- covered  book,  which,  on  its  face,  tells  a 
very  remarkable  story,  but  to  those  who  read  between 
the  lines  it  is  one  of  the  most  pathetic  records  in  the  home 
mission  annals  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

In  one  of  the  notable  addresses  which  were  made  in 
support  of  the  nomination  of  Dr.  Jackson  for  moderator 
of  the  General  Assembly,  Dr.  George  McMillan,  president 
of  Richmond  College,  Ohio,  related  an  incident  which 
illustrates  the  inception  and  import  of  this  unique  system 
of  ministerial  relief. 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     07 

"I  will  mention  one  incident,"  said  Dr.  McMillan,  "which 
doubtless  in  his  useful  life  had  many  multiples.  It  was  a  cold 
stormy  night ;  the  missionary  was  looking  for  the  quarterly 
check,  long  overdue,  but  was  informed  by  letter  that  there  was 
no  money  in  the  treasury  of  the  Board  ;  that  missionaries  must 
wait  still  longer  for  their  pay.  There  was  no  coal  in  the  bin, 
no  supplies  in  the  larder,  the  garments  were  thin  and  thread- 
bare. The  missionary  reads  the  discouraging  letter,  looks  at 
his  dear  wife  and  dependent  children,  tears  flow  from  their  eyes 
— they  all  fall  upon  their  knees  and  pray  God  for  help.  They 
arise  with  sad  hearts.  A  cart  is  seen  coming  along  the  road 
drawn  by  a  pony;  it  stops  at  the  gate;  the  pony  is  tied  to  the 
fence ;  a  little  man  clad  in  furs  winds  his  way  to  the  humble 
dwelling  of  the  missionary ;  a  daughter  looks  through  the  win- 
dow and  cries  out,  '  Oh,  mamma,  papa,  /'/  is,  it  is  Sheldon 
Jackson  !  Things  will  be  better  now. '  He  enters  the  house 
— is  received  with  tears  of  gladness.  Soon  afterwards  the 
frugal  meal  is  prepared  and  eaten  ;  the  story  of  their  distress 
is  heard.  Dr.  Jackson  writes  a  brief  letter  to  some  wealthy 
church.  A  box  of  clothing  and  a  generous  check  are  for- 
warded, and  the  family  is  happy  and  thank  God  and  bless  Dr. 
Jackson." 

In  after  years  when  he  was  a  district  missionary  by  appoint- 
ment, and  not  by  force  of  circumstances  merely,  as  at  this  time, 
he  continued  to  collect  and  distribute  this  "  Raven  Fund"  to 
those  in  his  widely  extended  district  whom  he  knew  to  be  in 
straitened  circumstances  or  overwhelmed  by  financial  em- 
barrassments, which  they  could  not  foresee  or  avoid.  "  The 
whole  church  had  confidence  in  his  word  and  integrity ;  there- 
fore his  ability  to  help  the  missionaries.  His  presence  among 
them  was  sunshine." 


The  first  entry  iu  the  cash  account  of  this  fund  is  pref- 
aced by  the  significant  words,  in  large  letters  directly 
under  its  title  : — 

''  With  God  all  things  arc  possible.'''' — '■^  Asli  and  ye  shall 
receive.''^ 

The  amount  received, — fifteen  dollars, — is  credited  to 
the  Central  Church,  St.  Louis.  This  initial  gift  was  at 
once  turned  over  to  his  friend  and  former  associate  in 


68  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  Choctaw  Mission,  the  Eev.  James  Frothingham, 
whom  he  had  persuaded  to  come  to  his  help  at  a  critical 
time  in  one  section  of  the  vast  territory  where  for  months 
previous  he  had  been  sowing  the  seed  and  preparing  the 
way.  The  date  of  this  gift  is  December,  1860.  The 
record  shows  that  the  aggregate  amount  received  for 
the  fund  from  this  time  until  January  1,  1870,  was 
$19,083.21.  Of  this  amount,  nearly  $10,000  was  contrib- 
uted for  church  buildings  or  special  mission  work  ; 
the  remaining  portion,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to 
$9, 230,  was  distributed  to  the  missionaries  who  had  suf- 
fered loss,  and  frequently  were  in  sore  straits,  as  in  the 
case  above  mentioned,  because  of  insufficient  or  reduced 
salaries.  In  the  year  1869,  for  reasons  to  be  given  here- 
after, a  large  proportion  of  this  fund  was  contributed  for 
the  support  of  new  men  on  the  frontier,  for  whom  no 
provision  had  at  the  time  been  made  by  the  Home 
Board. 

During  the  same  period — including  the  year  1869 — this 
indefatigable  worker  secured  one  hundred  and  seventy 
one  missionary  boxes,  from  churches  and  i)ersonal  friends, 
for  the  families  of  his  brethren  and  fellow  labourers 
within  the  bounds  of  his  presbytery  and  synod.  In 
some  cases  the  boxes  were  forwarded  direct  to  the  ad- 
dresses he  furnished,  and  in  others  they  were  sent  to  him 
for  distribution  among  those  who  in  his  judgment  were 
in  need  of  this  timely  aid,  but  were  too  sensitive  to  apply 
for  it. 

"  On  one  occasion,"  says  the  Rev.  John  L.  Gage,  a  co-la- 
bourer in  Minnesota  and  afterwards  in  the  far  West,  "  a  box 
of  clothing  was  sent  with  the  request  that  he  should  open  it  and 
divide  the  contents  between  two  missionaries.  When  in  ac- 
cordance with  this  request,  an  inventory  of  the  box  was  made 
it  was  found  that  some  of  the  articles  of  apparel  were  thread- 
bare and  scarcely  presentable.     Rather  than  hurt  the  feelings 


LA  CKESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     69 

of  the  missionaries  and  their  wives  by  sending  such  garments, 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Jackson  filled  the  box  from  their  own  wardrobe 
and  made  the  homes  glad.  But  the  missionaries  to  whom  they 
were  sent  never  knew  what  they  had  done. 

"  Dr.  Jackson  was  hospitable  as  well  as  kindly  and  helpful. 
Home  missionaries  were  always  welcome  to  his  home,  and  in 
our  trials  we  found  him  always  a  sympathizing  friend.  And 
not  alone  with  the  home  missionary  in  his  work,  but  he  deeply 
sympathized  with  the  trials  and  sacrifices  of  the  noble  band  of 
women  who  shared  with  their  husbands  the  privations  and  toils 
of  missionary  work  on  the  frontier.  I  wish  the  story  of  their 
sacrifices  as  we  have  seen  them  could  be  written.  But  it  is  a 
record  known  on  high." 


The  Rev.  Robert  Strong,  of  Pasadena,  Cal.,  auother  co- 
labourer  in  Miuuesota  during  this  period,  writes  : — 


I  corresponded  with  Sheldon  Jackson  when  I  was  graduated 
from  Princeton  Seminary,  in  1861,  and  he  urged  me  to  come 
West,  which  I  was  more  than  willing  to  do.  I  always  remem- 
ber that  when  I  reached  La  Crosse,  which  was  the  end  of  the 
railroad  system  of  the  United  States  in  the  Northwest,  at  that 
time,  I  crossed  the  ferry  to  La  Crescent;  and  on  the  way  I 
chatted  with  the  captain  about  the  Presbyterian  minister  on  the 
other  side.  He  seemed  to  think  very  highly  of  him  as  a  man 
and  told  me  how,  in  crossing  the  Mississippi  in  the  spring 
when  the  ice  was  running,  he  had  shown  much  pluck 
when  the  boat  was  in  a  dangerous  place;  and  I  think  Mr. 
Jackson  had  a  warm  place  in  the  captain's  heart  from  that 
day. 

When  I  reached  the  other  bank  I  noted  a  large  sign,  reading 
about  as  follows: — "  Presbyterian  immigrants  moving  West  will 
please  leave  their  names  and  destination  with  the  Rev.  Sheldon 
Jackson,  so  that  they  may  be  looked  after  and  church  privileges 
supphed  them  as  early  as  possible."  I  thought  that  was  a 
pretty  good  specimen  of  Western  enterprise.  I  settled  in  Min- 
neapolis, and  our  home  mission  committee  of  the  Synod  of 
Minnesota  hesitated  about  inviting  him  to  become  a  synodical 
missionary.  We  did  not  know  what  we  missed  when  the 
choice  fell  on  another  brother,  his  superior  perhaps. in  preach- 


70  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ing  ability,  but  wonderfully  his  inferior  in  administrative  force.* 
The  next  I  heard  of  him  was  that  he  had  accepted  the  super- 
intendency  of  missions  for  pretty  nearly  the  entire  West,  in- 
cluding Iowa,  Dakota,  Montana,  Utah,  Nebraska,  and  I  think 
one  other  of  the  territories,  and  he  was  raising  means  by  the 
thousands  of  dollars  and  sending  men  to  fields  all  over  his 
great  territory.  He  came  East  several  times  and  electrified 
great  audiences  in  New  York,  Albany,  Philadelphia  and  the 
great  cities  with  the  most  simple  and  telling  narratives  of  his 
missionary  experiences.  His  later  history  is  well  known  to  all 
the  Church,  including  his  great  work  in  Alaska. 

An  admirable  summary  of  Sheldon  Jackson's  work, 
while  at  La  Crescent,  is  given  bj^  one  of  his  former  asso- 
ciates, the  Eev,  Dr.  E.  B.  Abbott,  President  of  Albert 
Lea  College,  in  his  ''History  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Winona,"  which  was  approved,  and  published  by  order 
of  this  presbytery  in  1888. 

The  unique,  racy  style  of  the  writer  so  happily  blends 
with  the  stirring  events  he  describes,  and  the  story  is  so 
interesting  withal,  that  no  apology  is  deemed  necessary 
for  its  transference  to  these  j)ages  as  a  whole  : — 

La  Crosse,  La  Crescent — the  Cross  first,  the  Crescent 
later — opposite  to  each  other — opposed  to  each  other.  Early 
in  its  history,  the  Crescent  hoped  to  rival  or  perhaps  supplant 
the  Cross,  and  keep  the  mighty  stream  along  its  own  banks 
and  wharves  and  busy  life ; — not  having  read  the  book  of 
Foreordination.  It  was  during  that  era  of  hope,  though  hope 
deferred,  that  Divine  Providence  used  malarial  fever,  at  Spen- 
cer   Academy,    to   drive    to    Minnesota — far-famed,    healthful 

'On  March  14,  1864,  the  Eev.  Robert  Strong  of  Minneapolis,  Minn., 
in  behalf  of  the  Committee  of  the  Synod  of  Saint  Paul,  to  secure  a  su- 
perintendent or  synodical  missionary,  wrote  Mr.  Jackson  offering  him 
the  position  and  iirging  him  to  accept  it. 

The  offer  was  declined,  as  two  days  previous  Mr.  Jackson  had  agreed 
to  go  to  Eochester,  Minnesota,  as  co-pastor  with  the  Rev.  George 
Ainslie. 


LA  CEESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND    71 

Minnesota — one  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  early  building  up  of 
His  kingdom  hereaway.  Landing  at  Winona,  persuaded  by 
Mr.  Lyon  to  settle  permanently  for  six  months  in  the  booming 
and  prospective  city  of  La  Crescent — the  symbol  of  Islam — 
Sheldon  Jackson  began.  He  kept  on  beginning.  That  has 
been  his  life-work.  Some  years  later,  we  see  him  beginning 
further  west.  Next  he  is  beginning  among  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Then  he  goes  to  Alaska  and  keeps  on  beginning.  He 
will  continue  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  And  when 
earth  shall  cover  his  clay  with  other  clay,  let  his  epitaph  be,— 
"  Here  at  last  rests  the  Beginner. "-^Little  of  stature  but  earn- 
est in  spirit,  like  another  Zaccheus,  he  was  ever  running  ahead 
of  the  crowd,  climbing  a  hill,  scaling  a  mountain,  following  a 
valley,  opening  a  schoolhouse,  to  see  Jesus — who  He  was,  and 
what  He  would  do  for  these  far-away  western  people.  He  was 
constantly  searching  out  the  land,  sowing  beside  all  waters, 
organizing  beside  all  railroads. — Too  much  of  it,  do  you  say? — 
Organized  too  much  ?  The  hunter  does  not  grudge  a  lost  shot 
now  and  then,  if  he  yet  bags  abundance  of  game.  Oh,  for 
more  Jacksons  to  follow  up  Jackson,  to  build  up  what  he 
began  !  If  subsequent  ministers  had  had  more  of  his  faith  and 
zeal  and  toil,  maybe  Brownsville,  and  Minnereska,  and  Rush- 
ford,  and  Richland,  and  Austin,  and  Sheldon,  and  Plainview, 
and  Utica,  and  Taopi,  and  Dresser  Valley,  and  RoUingstone, 
would  never  have  been  dropped  from  our  Roll ;  and  Eyota, 
and  St.  Charles,  and  Waseca,  and  Janesville,  and  Fillmore, 
and  Stewartville,  would  never  have  been  given  over  to  other 
denominations.     May  be  ! 

Mr.  Jackson  found  one  scattered  Presbyterian  at  La  Cres- 
cent. It  was  not  long  till  he  organized  him — and  some  others. 
The  church  was  formed  December  28th,  with  six  members,  the 
election  of  officers  being  held  at  a  later  day.  Mr.  Jackson's 
salary  the  first  year  was  three  hundred  floUars,  paid  by  the 
Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  O.  S.  His  six  months'  settlement, 
multiplied  into  sixty  months,  resulted  in  a  comfortable  church 
building,  and  a  membership  of  forty-seven  souls; — and  the 
whole  region  for  twenty,  thirty,  forty  miles  or  more,  re- 
peatedly traversed,  usually  on  foot,  our  little  circuit-walker 
often  taking  no  horse — and  remember  it  took  more  than  mille 
passum  of  Sheldon  Jackson's  to  make  a  mile — every  neighbour- 
hood sought  out,  the  gospel  of  Salvation  preached  with  burn- 
ing fervour  in  every  town  and  hamlet,  every  Presbyterian  dis- 


Y^  SHELDON  JACKSON 

covered,  and  a  church  organized  wherever  two  or  three  of  the 
faith  could  be  got  together  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Take  a 
specimen  brick  from  the  house  of  his  labours :  On  Sabbath 
morning  he  preached  in  the  home  church  in  La  Crescent,  in 
the  evening  at  Hokah  (seven  miles),  or  Brownsville  (seven- 
teen miles),  Monday  he  travelled  to  Houston  (fourteen 
miles),  and  preached  in  the  evening,  Tuesday  evening  at  Shel- 
don (nine  miles),  Wednesday  evening  at  Rushford  (twelve 
miles),  Thursday  evening  at  Caledonia  (twenty-four  miles), 
Friday  he  returned  home,  and  on  that  day  and  Saturday 
ciiopped  wood  to  last  his  wife  another  week.  Then  on  Sabbath  he 
began  to  circuit  again,  varying  it  from  time  to  time,  to  carry 
the  word  of  life  to  every  dark  corner.  The  recital  of  such  a 
history  recalls  the  marvels  of  the  heroic  age,  when  men  for  the 
love  of  Christ  would  undergo  any  labour,  or  suffer  any  perse- 
cution, "so  they  might  finish  their  course  with  joy,  and  the 
ministry  which  they  had  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify 
the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  What  a  new  and  living  com- 
mentary it  gives  to  the  marching  orders  of  the  Christian  minis- 
try, "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature."  Mr.  Jackson  seemed  to  think  it  meant  just  that. 
But  what  time  could  he  have  for  the  preparation  of  sermons  ? 
Go  and  try  it  once,  my  young  brother ;  and  you  will  see  !  He 
never  read  that  last  command  in  the  light  of  modern  revision, 
"  Go  into  the  largest  congregations,  and  preach  the  grandest 
sermons  you  can  write  !  "  His  head  and  his  heart  were  full  of 
the  Gospel,  and  its  glowing  truths  were  cast  into  orderly  form 
for  sermons  while  on  his  solitary  journeys.  His  study  was  his 
saddle,  or  oftener  his  boots  !  Some  of  these  preaching  tours 
extended  as  far  west  as  Jackson,  and  some  as  far  east  as  Gales- 
burg,  Hixton,  North  Bend  and  Black  River  Falls.  At  that 
time,  he  and  the  churches  he  organized  were  in  connection 
with  the  Presbytery  of  Chippewa,  which  extended  a  little  west 
of  the  Mississippi.  During  those  years,  and  subsequently 
while  at  Rochester,  he  organized  or  assisted  in  organizing 
twenty-two  churches ;  of  which  the  greater  part  remain  to  this 
present,  but  some  are  fallen  asleep. 


During  the  year  1862,  ever  memorable  in  the  annals  of 
Minnesota  because  of  the  Indian  uprising  and  the  fearful 
massacres  which  followed,  no  churches  were  organized  in 


LA  CRESCENT  AND  REGIONS  AROUND     73 

this  field.  In  1863,  the  crisis  period  of  the  Civil  War, 
only  one  church  was  enrolled. 

"Yet  faithful  to  their  mission,"  says  Dr.  Abbott, 
"though  in  troublous  times,  Lyon,  Speer,  Chapin,  Jack- 
sou,  Frothingham,  Aiuslie,  still  proclaim  the  message  of 
salvation,  not  only  each  in  his  home  field,  but  running  to 
and  fro,  that  every  destitution  if  possible  may  be 
supplied." 

Meanwhile,  events  were  shaping  themselves  for  a  new 
departure  in  connection  with  another  base  of  operations, 
the  account  of  which  will  be  given  in  the  following 
chapter. 


V 

ROCHESTER  AND  THE  REGIONS  AROUND 

"More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 

Than  this  world  dreams  of. ' ' 

— Tennyson. 

DURING  oue  of  Ms  missionary  tours  into  the  in- 
terior of  Minnesota,  in  the  latter  part  of  Janu- 
ary, 1861,  Sheldon  Jackson  came  to  the  town  of 
Rochester.  It  was  the  day  of  small  things  for  this  place, 
but  its  location  was  favourable  for  development,  and  here 
he  gathered  a  little  band  for  Christian  worship)  on  the 
following  Sabbath,  The  Rev.  J.  C.  Caldwell,  missionary 
at  large  by  the  appointment  of  the  Synod  of  St.  Paul, 
visited  Rochester  on  the  9th  of  February  and  preached 
on  the  ensuing  Sabbath.  Having  learned  that  Mr.  Jack- 
son was  expected  to  return  the  latter  part  of  the  week 
following,  he  remained  over.  After  his  arrival,  they 
canvassed  the  place  together  and  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  way  was  open  for  the  organization  of  a  church. 
This  organization  was  effected  on  the  17th  of  February, 
with  four  members.  A  fortnight  later,  two  additional 
members  were  received.  It  was  then  arranged  that  Jack- 
son should  supply  the  church  every  two  weeks  until  a 
minister  could  be  secured  for  the  field.  Under  this  ar- 
rangement, the  preacher  made  a  round  trip  of  140  miles 
every  fortnight  on  horseback  or  by  horse  and  buggy. 
The  Rev.  Robert  F.  Taylor  was  the  first  regular  minister 
secured  for  this  charge,  but  ill -health  compelled  him  to 
resign  after  six  mouths  of  successful  labour.  Mr.  Taylor 
was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  George  Aiuslie,  Sheldon  Jack- 

74 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      T5 

son's  former  associate  in  the  Choctaw  Mission.  About 
two  years  later,  Mr.  Ainslie  requested  permission  of  the 
church  to  resign  his  pastorate  in  order  to  give  himself 
more  entirely  to  the  destitute  neighbourhoods  in  the  re- 
gions around,  which  he  had  sought  to  supply  as  he  had 
opportunity,  while  living  in  Rochester.  When  his  con- 
gregation declined  to  accede  to  this  request  he  asked  that 
a  call  might  be  made  to  Sheldon  Jackson  to  become  co- 
pastor  with  him  and  take  charge,  mainly,  of  the  work  in 
Rochester.  In  accordance  with  this  proposal,  a  unani- 
mous call  was  made  out  for  the  services  of  Mr.  Jackson, 
in  March,  1864,  which  call  he  accepted.  "This  double 
shepherding,"  says  Dr.  R.  B.  Abbott,  the  historian  of 
the  presbytery,  "worked  well,  giving  each  of  the  breth- 
ren much  opportunity  for  labour  in  the  regions  beyond." 
In  this  call  there  is  no  mention  of  a  specified  salary. 
Instead  of  the  usual  formula  it  reads  : — • 

"AYe  hereby  promise  and  oblige  ourselves  to  pay  you, 
in  half-yearly  payments,  a  sum  according  to  the  ability 
God  giveth  us,  during  the  time  of  your  being  and  con- 
tiuuiug  the  co-pastor  of  the  church." 

The  total  membership  of  the  Rochester  church,  at  the 
date  of  the  acceptance  of  this  call,  was  thirty-two.  Of  this 
number,  twenty-seven  lived  in  the  country,  from  two  to 
seven  miles  away,  and  the  remaining  five  were  residents 
of  the  town.  For  the  lack  of  a  regular  place  of  worship, 
the  Sabbath-school  aud  the  midweek  prayer-meeting  had 
been  discontinued.  As  soon  as  possible  after  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  Jackson  a  room  which  had  just  been  vacated  by 
the  owners  of  a  drug  store  was  secured,  and  all  the  regu- 
lar services  were  resumed.  About  thirty  persons  at- 
tended the  preaching  service,  at  this  time,  while  in  the 
Sabbath-school  the  attendance  ranged  from  fifteen  to 
twenty.  At  the  first  midweek  prayer-meeting  six  per- 
sons were  present  at  "  early  candle  lighting,"  in  accord- 


Y6  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ance  with  the  notice  previously  given,  but  it  had  not  oc- 
curred to  any  one  to  bring  a  caudle  and  the  service  was 
held  in  the  dark,  "the  passage  of  Scripture  being  re- 
peated and  the  hymns  sung  from  memory." 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  town,  and  its  prospective  im- 
portance as  a  centre  of  trade  and  influence,  made  it  neces- 
sary to  secure  a  house  of  worship)  without  delay  ;  and  to 
this  undertaking  the  new  pastor  addressed  himself  with 
his  usual  energy  and  celerity  of  movement,  despite  the 
obstacles,  which  to  others,  at  that  time,  seemed  to  be  al- 
most insurmountable.  As  the  result  of  a  careful  canvass 
of  the  congregation  and  community  he  secured  subscrip- 
tions amounting  to  $1,200, — about  one  dollar  for  every 
inhabitant  of  the  place.  With  this  in  hand  and  a  few 
letters  of  commendation  from  his  associates  on  the  field 
he  started  East  to  solicit  additional  funds  wherever  in  the 
providence  of  God  the  way  should  be  opened  up  for  the 
presentation  of  his  plea.  Before  he  reached  his  native 
state,  the  Wilderness  campaign  under  General  Grant  had 
commenced  and  so  absorbed  were  men  and  women  in  the 
desperate  struggles  of  that  memorable  year  that  it  was 
exceedingly  difficult  to  get  a  hearing  for  any  cause  or  to 
awaken  interest  in  any  plea,  which  did  not  bear  directly 
upon  the  issues  of  these  deadly  conflicts.  It  was  a  time 
of  great  financial  perplexity  and  depression,  also,  and 
many  who  had  the  cause  of  Christ  at  heart  deprecated  the 
very  mention  of  aggressive  work  on  the  frontier,  in  the 
midst  of  so  much  confusion  and  uncertainty.  To  the  man 
of  faith,  however,  all  things  are  possible,  and  with  prayer 
and  hope  the  work  which  meant  so  much  for  the  land 
when  reunited  and  redeemed,  was  zealously  and  per- 
sistently carried  on.  In  this  case  the  difficulties  which 
at  the  outset  bulked  so  largely  disappeared  in  time  and 
at  the  close  of  the  summer  Mr.  Jackson  returned  to  his 
charge  with  $5,000. 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      17 

The  following  extract  from  one  of  Sheldon  Jackson's 
reports  to  the  Board  gives  some  interesting  details  re- 
lating to  the  work  of  construction  in  its  earlier  stages  : — 

"Owing  to  low  water  in  the  Mississippi  River,  many 
of  the  lumber-yards  were  without  stock.  Some  private 
parties,  engaged  in  building,  had  suspended  operations 
on  account  of  the  difficulty  in  procuring  lumber  ;  and  the 
impression  prevailed  in  the  community  that  lumber  suf- 
ficient for  a  church  could  not  be  procured  at  any  cost. 
But  after  a  season  of  special  prayer  for  the  divine  bless- 
ing, the  attempt  was  made  and  the  lumber  was  secured  ; 
and,  with  the  lumber,  permission  was  obtained  to  have  it 
transported  from  Winona,  fifty  miles  distant,  on  the  con- 
struction trains  of  the  Winona  and  St.  Peter  Railroad  to 
the  end  of  the  track.  This  made  it  necessary  for  me  to 
travel  backwards  and  forwards  on  the  construction  trains 
for  several  weeks,  sometimes  acting  in  an  emergency  as 
brakesman,  and  always  superintending  the  unloading  of 
the  lumber  at  the  end  of  the  track.  Tlien  teams  had  to 
be  procured  to  bring  it  into  the  city.  Finally,  the  lum- 
ber was  on  the  church  lot.  Then  a  new  difficulty  arose. 
Wages  were  advancing  so  rapidly  that  no  responsible 
builder  was  willing  to  contract  for  the  work  ;  and  the 
season  was  so  fiir  advanced  (October),  that  many  thought 
it  unwise  to  commence  before  the  following  spring. 
Again,  recourse  was  had  to  prayer.  The  carpenters 
were  engaged ;  and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  the  work 
went  forward  so  rapidly  that  upon  the  first  Sabbath  in 
December  the  building  was  up  and  enclosed  ;  and  the 
basement  plastered,  painted,  and  occupied  for  divine 
service.  The  next  season  the  house  (G2x36  feet  with 
spire  and  stained  glass  windows)  was  finished,  and  a 
pleasant  and  roomy  manse  added  to  the  rear  of  the  churcli. 
The  entire  cost  of  the  church  building,  including  a  bell 
weighing  1,500  pounds,  was  about  $8,000." 


78  SHELDON  JACKSON 

From  this  date  and  with  these  added  facilities,  the 
sphere  of  influence  of  the  Rochester  church  was  greatly 
enlarged.  At  the  expiration  of  Sheldon  Jackson's  third 
annual  commission  the  church  became  self-supporting, 
and  his  connection  with  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  as  a 
missionary  pastor  from  this  time  ceased.  In  his  final 
report  he  says  : — 

"In  the  three  years  past  the  prayer- meeting,  com- 
menced in  the  dark,  has  increased  from  an  attendance  of 
six  to  fifty  ;  the  Sabbath-school  from  twenty  to  two  hun- 
dred ;  and  the  membership  from  thirty-two  to  one  hundred 
and  thirty, — the  membership  in  the  city  growing  from 
five  to  ninety.  The  number  of  communicants  added  the 
first  year  was  twenty-three  ;  the  second  year,  forty-one  ; 
and  the  past  year,  fifty-one.  The  contributions  the  past 
year  to  the  Boards  of  the  Church  amounted  to  $300. 
They  now  set  out  to  raise,  for  salary  and  congregational 
expenses,  about  $1,800.  This  with  the  depression  of 
business  causes  many  of  them  to  give  far  beyond  the 
former  standard  of  giving.  Such  are  some  of  the  fruits 
of  your  fostering  care.     To  God  be  all  the  praise." 

"During  Mr.  Jackson's  ministry  at  La  Crescent  two 
sisters,  Mrs.  M.  M.  Eice,  widow  of  a  Presbyterian  minis- 
ter, and  Mrs.  M.  R.  Andrews,  widow  of  a  teacher  and 
ruling  elder,  came  to  the  village  and  opened  a  private 
school.  As  they  were  women  of  culture,  refinement, 
teaching  ability  and  spirituality,  Mr.  Jackson  gave  them 
the  glad  hand  of  welcome,  and  such  assistance  as  was 
possible  in  their  school.  When  he  removed  to  Rochester, 
it  was  arranged  that  the  school  should  also  be  changed  to 
that  point  as  a  place  of  wider  influence. 

"  At  Rochester,  the  two  sisters  and  Mr.  Jackson  formed 
a  company  to  establish  a  private  boarding  and  day-school 
under  religious  influences,  which  was  incorporated  as  the 
*  Rochester  Female  Institute. '      In  addition  to  his  duties 


EOCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      79 

as  pastor  of  the  church  and  missionary  at  large,  he  was 
professor  of  higher  mathematics  and  languages  in  the 
school,  without  salary.  During  his  pastorate,  from  1864 
to  18G9,  the  school  enjoyed  great  ijrosperity." 

In  December,  1867,  the  senior  co-pastor,  the  Rev. 
George  Ainslie,  requested  a  dissolution  of  the  pastoral 
relation  in  order  that  he  might  give  all  his  time  to  mis- 
sionary labours  in  the  adjacent  regions.  The  congrega- 
tion united  with  him  in  this  request  for  the  reasons  given, 
and  soon  afterwards  the  relation  was  formally  dissolved, 
leaving  his  former  associate  sole  pastor  of  the  church. 
In  January,  1868,  a  manual  of  the  church  was  published 
by  the  pastor,  which  gave  a  brief  history  of  the  congre- 
gation from  the  date  of  its  organization  ;  and  contained 
many  practical  suggestions  relating  to  mutual  helpfulness 
and  greater  efficiency  along  the  lines  of  aggressive  work. 
In  his  suggestions  for  the  new  year,  special  emphasis  was 
laid  upon  systematic  exchange  of  calls,  as  a  matter  of  re- 
ligious diity^  social  gatherings,  personal  communion  with 
God,  and  earnest,  daily  prayer  for  the  church  and  its 
minister. 

An  honoured  representative  of  this  little  flock,  Mrs. 
Amelia  G.  Watson  of  Marshall,  Minn.,  writes,  May  18, 
1905,  concerning  her  former  pastor  and  his  work  as 
follows :  — 

"  Mr.  Watson  and  myself  both  united  with  the  Presby- 
terian church  at  Rochester,  Minn.,  during  Dr.  Jackson's 
pastorate.  He  married  us  and  baptized  our  three  oldest 
children.  We  have  watched  Avith  great  interest  his  in- 
creasing influence  in  the  Church  and  nation,  and  re- 
gard him  as  one  of  the  few  grand  men,  unique  in  char- 
acter and  personality,  a  lovable,  humble,  great  man  in  all 
that  constitutes  true  greatness.  As  a  preacher,  his  gifts 
were  not  exceptionally  fine,  but  he  excelled  as  a  pastor  ; 
and  in  downright  earnestness  of  purpose,  consecration, 


80  SHELDON  JACKSON 

and  indefatigable  work  he  approached  nearer  to  the  char- 
acter of  St.  Paul  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  He  was  too 
positive  and  aggressive  not  to  have  made  enemies,  but  we 
always  loved  him  and  saw  nothing  but  what  was  lovable 
and  admirable  in  him.  He  probably  has  faults,  that  al- 
most invariably  attach  to  such  positive  natures,  but,  if 
he  has,  I  never  saw  them.  .  .  .  What  a  blessing  to 
the  world  he  has  been  !  I  don't  think  he  ever  pondered 
much  the  question, — '  Is  life  worth  living  ?'  He  was  too 
busy  living  for  that." 

"  I  became  acquainted  with  Brother  Jackson,"  says  the 
Eev.  Joseph  McNulty,  of  Woodbury,  New  Jersey,  a 
neighbouring  presbyter  and  fellow  labourer,  "  upon  my 
acceptance  of  a  call  to  the  Presbyterian  church  of 
Winona,  Minn.,  in  the  spring  of  1868,  at  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War.  He  was  the  pastor  at  that  time  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  of  Eochester,  and  I  was  thrown  in  contact 
with  him  very  often.  He  was  a  leading  man  in  the 
presbytery  and  in  the  synod,  both  by  force  of  character, 
as  I  soon  found,  and  intensity  of  interest.  While  he  had 
his  own  flourishing  pastorate  in  the  young  city  mentioned, 
and  endeavoured  never  to  permit  any  lack  of  pastoral 
care  in  the  pulpit  or  out  of  it,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
'  busy  here  and  busy  there '  with  the  care  of  all  the 
churches,  and  the  planting  of  new  ones  throughout  the 
state,  and  the  culture  of  legitimate  missionary  grounds 
throughout  the  bounds  of  our  synod.  He  went  hand  in 
hand  with  good  old  'Father  Lyon,'  the  synodical  mis- 
sionary superintendent,  my  predecessor  in  the  church  of 
Winona.  I  know  we  had  occasion  frequently  to  speak  of 
the  voluntary  journeys  Mr.  Jackson  (as  he  was  then), 
made  again  and  again  out  along  the  frontiers  in  the 
severities  and  hardships  of  that  climate, — starting  from 
home  Monday  morning  often  and  getting  back  only 
Saturday  night — gathering  little  knots  of  people  and 


ROCHESTEK  AND  KEGIONS  AROUND      81 

preaching  to  them  every  day  or  night  and  so  laying 
foundations  for  something  better  to  come  afterwards. 
His  wife  too  was  equally  self-sacrificing  with  himself  in 
those  days  and  weeks  of  missionary  work, — 'tarrying 
with  the  stuff,'  at  home.  His  remuneration  for  it  all  at 
that  early  day  was  very  limited, — for  then,  I  am  pretty 
sure  he  did  not  have  any  of  the  income  he  came  to  have 
in  later  years.  He  was  a  brother  beloved  and  preemi- 
nent among  his  brethren,  though  he  was  always  modest 
and  never  thrust  himself  forward  in  the  way  of  others. 
As  a  presbyter  he  was  a  wise  counsellor,  and  the  church 
never  would  have  made  the  headway  it  did  in  Minnesota, 
but  for  his  efficient  guidance  and  help.  I  am  proud  of 
ever  having  been  associated  even  for  a  short  time  with  a 
life  so  grandly  useful  to  the  world,  I  know  of  but  few 
men  who  have  woven  sacrifices  and  self- forget  fulness  into 
their  lives  more  thoroughly  from  Alpha  to  Omega  than 
Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson." 

While  there  were  many  like  those  whose  testimony  has 
been  cited,  who  appreciated  the  unselfish  devotion  and 
boldly  aggressive  policy  of  Jackson  and  his  associates, 
there  were  others  who  looked  with  distrust  upon  their 
superabundant  activities  and  when  occasion  offered  openly 
opposed  the  organization  of  feeble  churches  on  the  fron- 
tier except  where  there  were  enough  bona  fide  Presbyterian 
settlers  to  warrant  such  action.  Practically  they  inter- 
preted the  commission  of  the  Home  Board  to  mean  : 
*'Go  only  where  there  are  Presbyterians  and  plant 
churches."  Not  so,  however,  did  the  men  on  the  out- 
posts understand  their  marching  orders.  Accepting  the 
command  of  the  Master  as  the  rule  of  duty,  they  went  out 
far  and  near  to  bring  the  privileges  of  tlio  Gospel,  and  the 
good  things  of  their  Presbyterian  faith  and  inheritance, 
to  the  destitute,  the  needy,  and  the  lost. 

Strangely  enough,  this  principle  of  action,  which  seems 


82  SHELDON  JACKSON 

to  be  so  universally  accepted  by  all  tbe  churches  at  the 
present  time  had  to  fight  its  way  against  opposition  and 
official  obstructions  in  the  beginning  and  throughout  the 
course  of  the  great  forward  movement  which  ultimately 
won  for  the  Presbyterian  Chui-ch  a  high  place  of  honour 
and  influence  in  the  vast  stretches  of  territory  which  lie  be- 
yond the  Mississippi  Eiver.  This  was  the  inevitable  pro- 
test of  ultra- conservatism  and  easy-going  discipleship.  It 
had  the  look  of  plausibility,  for  the  treasury  of  the  Home 
Board  was  empty  when  the  men  at  the  front  were  plead- 
ing for  advance  and  enlargement,  but  in  the  end  wisdom 
was  justified  other  children  :  and  it  was  found  that  the  for- 
ward movement  in  the  face  of  difficulties  not  only  aroused 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  Church,  but  replenished  its  empty 
coffers  and  multiplied  its  aggressive  agencies  many  fold. 
Meanwhile,  however,  the  leaders  in  this  movement  were 
ofttimes  regarded  as  dreamers  and  enthusiasts  to  be  curbed 
and  restrained.  On  one  occasion,  Jackson  was  sharply 
criticized  by  a  member  of  the  Synod  of  St.  Paul  for  his 
excessive  zeal  in  multiplying  churches  while  those  already 
existent  were  languishing  for  lack  of  funds.  This  charge 
which  few  of  the  brethren  of  that  body  were  inclined  to 
take  seriously,  prompted  the  humorous  response  of 
*'  Father  Lyon,"  who  was  at  that  time  the  district  mission- 
sionary  of  the  synod,  and  who  weighed  225  pounds : — 
"Yes,  I  know.  Brother  Jackson  goes  pretty  fast  some- 
times, but  while  I  am  holding  on  to  his  coat  tails  I  think 
he  can  be  kept  within  reasonable  bounds."  The  dis- 
parity of  bulk  between  the  two  men  was  so  apparent  to  all 
present  and  the  ludicrous  picture  of  this  ponderous 
official  brake  so  realistic,  that  a  hearty  outburst  of  laugh- 
ter followed,  making  further  comment  or  action  unneces- 
sary. 

The  dauntless  spirit  of  the  frontier  missionaries  which 
Sheldon  Jackson  represented  and  the  need  for  special  ex- 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      83 

ertion  on  their  behalf  cau  best  be  illustrated  by  a  brief 
extract  from  a  letter  addressed  to  him,  under  date  of 
September  11,  1868  :— 

"The  Board  has  the  misfortune,"  says  the  writer,  "to 
have  an  empty  treasury,  so  they  can  give  me  this  year 
but  $260.  Last  year,  it  was  $350,  and  this  means  a  re- 
duction of  over  twenty-five  per  cent.  You  can  easily  see 
that  this  is  an  extremely  hard  blow  to  us.  The  people 
out  here  are  poor,  for  the  most  part.  If  any  of  them 
have  property  they  are  ;^in  debt.  Their  crops  failed 
for  the  last  two  years  and  some  of  them  had  to  pay  a  large 
percentage  on  borrowed  money.  I  cannot  look  for  much 
from  this  people  at  present,  if  anything.  I  have  a  wife 
and  two  children  and  I  am  forced  to  ask  :  '  How  am  I 
going  to  live  ? '  But  I  cau  trust  my  blessed  Saviour.  He 
has  never  laid  a  burden  upon  me  I  could  not  with  His 
help  bear,  though  grievous  to  be  borne.  This  last  sum- 
mer we  had  to  pass  through  deep  waters,  but  we  have 
come  through. 

' '  My  wife  has  stood  up  under  her  sorrows  bravely.  She 
could  suffer  and  do  for  her  Master  what  she  would  in 
former  years  have  looked  upon  as  insupportable.  Surely 
our  friends  in  the  older  and  more  favoured  portions  of 
the  Church  will  not  permit  us,  —who  are  willing  to  do,  and 
suffer  in  doing,  this  heavy  frontier  work — to  perish. 
There  seems  to  be,  it  appears  to  me,  an  effort  to  hold  us 
back  in  our  aggressive  work.  I  believe,  however,  that 
we  are  doing  in  Minnesota  just  what  our  brethren  on<f1it 
to  do  all  tlirough  this  young  and  rising  West.  Our  only 
fault  out  here  in  the  West  and  Northwest  is  that  we  are 
not  by  one  half  aggressive  enough.  Let  us  not  therefore 
give  up  till  the  Lord  tells  us  we  must  give  up.  Then  will 
we  bow  in  humble  submission  to  His  holy  will  and  never 
before  will  we  back  down  a  single  inch." 

The  case  here  cited  was  not  an  exceptional  one.     The 


84  SHELDON  JACKSON 

writer  lias  bad  access  to  information  based  upon  scores  of 
letters  of  similar  imi^ort.  During  the  dark  days  of  the 
Civil  War  these  faithful  representatives  of  the  Church 
silently  waited  and  endured,  but  with  the  return  of  peace 
and  prosperity  they  naturally  looked  for  a  revival  of  in- 
terest in  the  cause  for  which  they  had  jeopardized  their 
own  interests  in  the  hour  of  need. 

Great  was  their  disappointment,  therefore,  when  their 
earnest  entreaties  for  suj)port  and  enlargement  were  met 
with  the  old,  heart-sickening  response  that  the  treasury 
of  the  Board  was  empty. 

For  this  reason,  several  applications  for  new  commis- 
sions in  the  spring  of  1868  were  denied.  For  reasons  not 
so  apparent  the  Board  refused  to  recommission  Mr.  Lyon, 
the  honoured  and  greatly  beloved  veteran  of  this  field,  as 
district  missionary  of  the  Synod  of  St.  Paul. 

At  this  time  the  officials  of  the  Board  of  Domestic 
Missions  were  unfortunately  committed  to  a  policy  of 
extreme  cautiousness  in  dealing  with  the  great  issues 
which  came  before  them  in  connection  with  the  en- 
larging mission  fields  of  the  New  West.  Acting  as  they 
honestly  believed  in  the  interests  of  the  whole  country, 
and  failing,  to  some  extent  at  least,  to  realize  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  hour  and  the  necessity  for  prompt  action 
and  liberal  outlay,  they  dei^recated  the  collecting  of 
special  funds,  or  the  making  of  special  pleas,  in  behalf 
of  this  emergency  work  on  the  frontier,  insisting  that  all 
parts  of  the  field  should  share  alike  in  the  appropriations 
from  the  general  fund. 

To  the  men  at  the  front,  who  were  holding  their  ground, 
fifteen  hundred  miles  westward,  against  fearful  odds ; 
who  had  endured  the  pinchings  of  poverty  and  the  hu- 
miliation of  "beating  time,"  while  the  representatives 
of  other  churches  were  bravely  advancing  to  conquer  and 
possess  the  land,  this  seemed  like  a  virtual  surrender  of 


Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Western  Wisconsin,  Minne- 
sota, Iowa,  Nebraska  and  Wyoming. 

{For  names  see  Appendix,  page  480.     Group  2.) 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      85 

privilege  and  opi^ortuuity,  in  one  of  the  most  critical  and 
momentous  periods  in  the  history  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Confident  that  the  Church  they  represented  had 
ample  funds  to  meet  the  demands  of  a  vigorous  forward 
movement  and  equally  confident,  from  past  experiences, 
of  its  willingness  to  respond  with  generosity  and  alacrity, 
if  their  situation  should  be  made  known,  they  were  united 
and  insistent  in  the  request : — "  Let  us  go  forward  with 
faith  in  God  and  trust  the  Church  to  sustain  the  work." 
In  their  judgment,  also,  the  great  need  of  the  hour  was  a 
man  of  their  own  number,  who  could  worthily  and  intelli- 
gently represent  their  cause;  a  man  'Uhat  had  under- 
standing of  the  times,  to  know  what  Israel  ought 
to  do." 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  in  this  time  of  depression  and 
discouragement,  two  of  the  leading  missionary  synods  of 
the  New  West— St.  Paul  and  Iowa — indicated  their  prefer- 
ence by  official  action,  for  the  busy  pastor  of  the  Rochester 
church,  as  the  most  suitable  man  to  enlist  the  sympathies 
and  provoke  the  activities  of  the  church  in  the  inaugura- 
tion and  development  of  a  forward  movement. 

Prior  to  this  action,  however,  which  will  be  given  in 
due  course,  the  Presbytery  of  Southern  Minnesota  gave 
expression  to  its  views  in  the  following  paper,  at  Minne- 
apolis, September  27,  18G8  :— 

Whereas,  the  committee  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Do- 
mestic Missions  to  correspond  with  reference  to  a  permanent 
secretary  ask  suggestions  of  any  who  are  interested  in  the  sub- 
ject, the  Presbytery  of  Southern  Minnesota  would  respectfully 
suggest  to  the  Board  that  a  greater  force  is  necessary  to  the  ef- 
ficient working  of  the  Board  that  the  work  in  and  out  of  the 
office  makes  an  accumulation  of  labour  far  too  great  for  one, 
and  perhaps  for  two  persons. 

The  Board  tell  us,  with  sad  hearts,  that  the  treasury  is  empty, 
that  not  only  are  they  compelled  to  decline  farther  commis- 
sions, but  they  cannot  pay  those  already  commissioned, — in- 


86  SHELDON  JACKSON 

deed,  that  home  missionary  work  is  at  a  deadlock  for  want  of 
funds. 

Presbytery  is  confident  that  all  that  is  wanting  to  fill  the  treas- 
ury is  for  the  Church  to  be  made  fully  acquainted  with  the 
wants  of  the  Board,  and  the  particular  state  of  the  work  in 
missionary  fields. 

When  we  pause  to  reflect  that  some  of  our  missionaries  on 
the  frontier  are  almost  in  a  starving  condition,  that  absolute 
suffering  to  them,  and  their  families,  in  some  instances  has  only 
been  prevented  for  a  time  by  individual  brethren  borrowing 
money  on  their  own  responsibility,  at  high  rates  of  interest,  for 
their  relief,  or  the  missionaries  themselves  paying  forty-eight 
per  cent.,  we  will  certainly  be  excused  for  showing  an  interest 
in  the  matter  that  we  never  felt  before,  and  should  be  criminal 
if  we  repressed. 

When,  too,  we  consider  the  advance  which  Presbyterianism 
has  made,  during  the  past  year,  in  the  great  and  important 
field  under  our  supervision,  the  competition  of  other  ecclesias- 
tical bodies  to  occupy  the  same  field,  and  the  fullness  of  their 
ability  to  press  every  advantage  in  that  direction,  we  are  ad- 
monished that  it  is  of  the  last  moment,  as  we  value  the  growth 
of  the  Kingdom  under  our  hands,  not  to  slacken  the  impulse 
we  have  obtained,  and  doing  so  must  prove  disastrous,  and 
only  disastrous  to  our  best  interests. 

In  view  of  these  things,  it  is  evidently  desirable  that  our 
treasury  should  be  filled  at  once.  And  in  order  to  this,  in  our 
judgment,  the  Church  should  be  brought  into  immediate  sym- 
pathy with  the  whole  missionary  field. 

We  therefore  earnestly  recommend,  as  a  man  evidently 
fitted  to  aid  in  effecting  this,  whether  in  the  capacity  of  assist- 
ant secretary,  or  as  the  secretary  proper  of  the  Board,  the  Rev. 
Sheldon  Jackson,  of  Rochester,  Minnesota. 

(Signed)  W.  G.  Wilson,  Stated  Clerk, 

Minneapolis,  Sept.  27,  1868. 

H.  A.  Myhew,  Moderator. 

This  recommeudation  was  not  regarded  with  favour  by 
the  executi-v  e  committee  of  the  Board  ;  but  it  is  interest- 
ing as  showing  the  trend  of  sentiment  in  the  location 
where  the  nominee  for  this  position  had  lived  and  laboured 
for  nearly  ten  years. 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      87 

The  action  of  the  Synod  of  St.  Paul,  one  day  later- 
September  28th— was  not  so  definite  in  its  suggestions  as 
to  employment,  but  it  was  more  acceptable  to  the  of&cers 
of  the  Board  and  accomplished  in  part  the  object  which 
its  advocates  had  in  mind. 

The  paper  as  presented  and  adopted  is  herewith 
given : — 

Synod  of  St.  Paul,  m  Session  at 
Minneapolis,  Minn.,  28  Sept.,  1868. 
To  THE  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  : 

The  Synod  of  St.  Paul  in  answer  to  the  invitation  of  the 
Board  for  suggestions  as  to  the  necessities  of  the  Board  at  the 
present  time,  beg  leave  to  suggest  most  respectfully,  that  in  view 
of  the  depletion  of  the  treasury,  if  the  Board  see  the  way  clear 
to  the  employment  in  some  capacity  of  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson, 
of  Rochester,  Minnesota,  we  think  it  would  be  very  advanta- 
geous, inasmuch  as  we  have  often  found  him  to  have  a  remark- 
able tact  in  interesting  the  churches  in  the  cause  of  missions, 
and  awakening  an  interest  in  behalf  of  destitutions  in  missionary 
regions,  and  in  soliciting  and  collecting  funds  in  their  aid. 
In  this  respect  we  think  he  has  few  if  any  superiors  in  the 
Church.  And  we  believe  he  would  be  willing  to  serve  the 
cause  of  Christ,  in  this  or  any  way  to  which  the  Providence  of 
God  may  call  him.  And  we  beg  leave  to  suggest  further,  that 
this  recommendation  is  spontaneous,  and  not  the  result  of  any 
communication  with  him  ;  and  of  this  action  he  is  entirely  un- 
aware. 

Charles  Thayer, 
(A  true  extract;  pages  122  and  123.)  Stated  Clerk. 

The  reply  was  as  follows  : — 

Mission  House,  goy  Arch  St.,  Philadelphia, 
Oct.  6th,  1868. 
Rev.  Chas.  Thayer,  Farmington,  Minn., 

Stated  Clerk  of  the  Synod  of  St.  Paul. 
Dear  Brother  : — Your  favour  of  the  2Sth  ult.  containing 
an  extract  from  the  minutes  of  your  synod  is  at  hand. 

In  reply  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  we  have  an- 


88  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ticipated  the  wish  of  the  synod  and  hope  to  have  the  gratifica- 
tion of  a  visit  from  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  in  the  course  of 
the  present  week.  Mr.  Jackson  had  been  invited  to  come  East 
some  months  ago,  but  his  engagements  prevented  him  from 
coming  at  that  time.  He  has  written  to  us  that  we  may  expect 
him  on  the  7th  or  8th  inst.  He  will  visit  several  of  the  synods 
m  this  part  of  the  country,  and  I  hope  will  be  able  to  stir  up 
the  ministers,  etc.,  to  greater  zeal  and  liberality.  By  presenting 
and  pleadmg  the  cause  before  such  large  bodies  he  will  be  able, 
the  committee  thinks,  to  accomplish  more  in  a  short  time  than 
in  any  other  way.     With  best  wishes. 

Yours  truly, 

G.  W.  MusGRAVE,  Sec'y. 
A  true  copy  furnished  by  order  of 
the  Synod  of  St.  Paul, 
Chas.  'Ihayer,  Stated  Clerk. 


For  some  months  before  Sheldon  Jackson  started  to  the 
East  in  compliance  with  this  request  he  had  been  greatly 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  a  more  aggressive  work 
along  the  line  of  the  new  railroads  and  wagon  routes, — 
already  crowded  with  emigrants — which  led  through 
Iowa  and  Nebraska  to  the  Eocky  Mountains.  "He  had 
the  eye  of  an  explorer,  which  always  rests  on  the  hori- 
zon," and  in  the  quiet  hours  of  the  day  and  night  he 
heard  the  call  of  the  new  land  farther  west  and  felt  the 
responsibility  of  one  who  was  to  determine  its  future  for 
the  multitudes  already  going  as  well  as  of  those  who  were 
to  follow.  Accepting  the  nearer  call  to  duty  as  a  provi- 
dential introduction  to  some  place  of  service  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  general  work  he  had  already  decided  to  ask 
for  a  dissolution  of  his  pastoral  relation  with  the  Eoches- 
ter  church,  to  take  effect  at  the  close  of  the  year,  but  as 
yet  had  given  no  notice  to  the  congregation  of  his  in- 
tention. In  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Cyrus  Dickson,  of 
Baltimore,  secretary-elect  of  the  Board  he  writes,  under 
date  of  August  27th  :— 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      89 

I  have  been  a  pioneer  here  for  nine  years.  For  four  years 
and  more  the  brethren  have  been  urging  nie  to  enter  the  general 
work,  but,  in  the  providence  of  God,  the  way  never  seemed  to 
be  open  until  now.  It  has  been  proposed  by  men  of  promi- 
nence in  the  West  that  the  Board  be  asked  to  divide  the  state 
of  Iowa  and  give  me  the  northern  part,  and  some  action  look- 
ing to  such  an  end  may  be  taken  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Synod  of  Iowa.  No  action  is  desired  upon  tlie  part  of  the 
Board  at  present,  however,  as  I  cannot  leave  this  field  before 
the  ist  of  January  next. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Syuod  of  Iowa,  in  Cedar  Rapids, 
October  3,  1868,  the  Eev.  J.  Armstrong  offered  the  fol- 
lowing  paper  which  was  adopted  : — 

Resolved,  That  in  view  of  the  rapidly-increasing  popula- 
tion of  our  state,  now  numbering  about  one  million  souls,  ami 
of  the  several  lines  of  railroads  being  constructed  through  the 
state,  with  the  numerous  villages  and  cities  springing  up  along 
them  and  over  our  vast  prairies,  we  believe  that  in  order  to 
render  the  plan  of  district  missionaries  effective,  more  than 
one  is  required  in  Iowa, 

We  would  therefore  respectfully  suggest  to  the  Board  of 
Missions  that  they  consider  the  propriety  of  appointing  another 
missionary  in  this  state,  as  soon  as  their  funds  will  permit, 
whose  field  shall  be  the  North  Western  R.  R.  and  the  territory 
lying  between  it  and  the  Minnesota  line,  and  that  he  be  es[)e- 
cially  directed  to  visit  the  new  settlements  and  towns  not  con- 
tingent to  the  fields  now  occupied  by  our  mmisters,  and  to 
secure  organizations  where  desirable  and  foster  them,  and  as 
soon  as  practicable,  secure  for  them  the  regular  ministration  of 
the  word. 

lu  order  to  carry  out  this  action,  a  committee  of  six 
was  appointed  who  nominated  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson, 
of  Minnesota,  for  the  position,  subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  Board.  This  recommendation,  was  approved  by  a 
unanimous  vote  of  the  synod. 

Wheu  presented  to  the  Board,  at  a  later  date,  the  re- 
quest was,   however,   declined.     The    principal    reason 


90  SHELDON  JACKSON 

assigned  was  the  lack  of  funds  in  the  treasury,  but  it  ap- 
pears from  other  evidence  in  hand  that  the  executive 
committee  was  desirous  at  this  time  to  dispense  with  the 
office  of  district  missionary,  in  every  part  of  the  field. 

Meanwhile  the  Eochester  pastor  more  than  justified  the 
confidence  reposed  in  him  in  his  able  and  fervid  presenta- 
tion of  the  claims  and  necessities  of  the  vast  mission  terri- 
tory opening  up  so  wonderfully  in  the  far  West.  By 
subsequent  action  of  the  executive  committee  his  stay 
was  extended  through  November  and  December,  greatly 
to  the  advantage  of  the  cause. 

At  Chicago,  on  the  27th  of  October,  Mr.  Jackson  wrote 
to  the  session  of  his  church  informing  them  of  his  inten- 
tion to  offer  his  resignation  to  take  effect  on  the  first  day 
of  January,  1869,  assigning  as  a  reason  his  decision  to  go 
into  the  general  work  cf  the  Church  in  the  West.  In  this 
letter  he  sent  a  personal  gift  of  $125  to  the  church  and 
gave  notice  of  his  purpose  to  release  the  congregation 
from  obligation  to  continue  his  salary  after  November 
1st. 

The  pastoral  relation  was  formally  dissolved  at  a  meet- 
ing of  presbytery  held  at  Owatouna,  Minn.,  on  the  10th 
of  February.  In  the  closing  days  of  the  same  month 
Jackson  completed  the  special  work  he  had  in  hand 
within  the  bounds  of  the  presbytery  and  synod,  and  on 
the  second  day  of  March  left  Minnesota  for  a  new  field 
of  labour  within  the  bounds  of  the  Synod  of  Iowa,  to 
which  he  assuredly  gathered  from  the  indications  of 
God's  providence  he  had  been  called. 

Of  his  widely  extended  and  singularly  diversified  min- 
istrations in  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin  which  covered 
almost  a  decade  of  the  most  eventful  history  of  the  Church 
and  the  nation,  no  adequate  summary  can  be  given  in 
words  or  statistics.  Much  of  it  was  work  which  shall  be 
known  only  at  the  judgment  day.     Among  the  tangible 


ROCHESTER  AND  REGIONS  AROUND      91 

results  not  already  mentioned,  the  records  show  that  dur- 
ing this  period  Sheldon  Jackson  preached  as  a  supply  at 
thirty  stations ;  organized,  or  assisted  in  the  organization 
of  twenty-three  churches  (three  of  which  were  afterwards 
turned  over  to  other  denominations  under  the  rules  of 
comity)  ;  secured  for  the  field  by  letter,  personal  solicita- 
tion, or  by  visits  to  the  theological  seminaries,  twenty- 
eight  ministers  ;  collected  funds  for  the  mission  work  or 
for  the  missionaries  amounting  to  about  $13,500  and 
distributed  directly  or  indirectly  to  the  families  of  mis- 
sionaries more  than  150  boxes  of  clothing  and  household 
sui)plies.  It  was  a  busy,  blessed  ministry,  the  results 
of  which  are  manifest  in  ever-increasing  measure  in  the 
large  and  influential  synod  now  covering  the  ground 
which  at  that  time  was  held  by  a  few  faithful  mission- 
aries of  the  Synod  of  St.  Paul. 


VI 

THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT 

If  there  is  a  harvest  ahead,  even  a  distant  one,  it  is  poor  thrift  to  be 
stingy  of  your  seed  corn. — Carlyle. 

HEN  Sheldon  Jackson  commenced  his  mission- 
ary labours  at  La  Crescent,  in  the  summer  of 
1859,  the  outermost  fringe  of  permanent  set- 
tlement and  civilization  in  the  territory  then  known  as 
the  "  Ifew  West "  was  in  the  valley  of  the  missouri  Eiver, 
a  few  miles  west  of  Omaha.  Except  the  mission  or- 
ganizations among  the  Indians,  there  were  no  Presbyter- 
ian churches  in  North  or  South  Dakota,  Montana,  Wash- 
ington, Utah,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
or  Nevada.  On  the  Pacific  slope,  there  were  but  twenty 
Old  School  Presbyterian  organizations,  of  which  eleven 
were  in  California  and  nine  in  Oregon.  From  this  period 
until  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  the  conditions  were  un- 
favourable for  permanent  settlements,  and  the  population, 
which  consisted  mainly  of  gold-seekers  and  adventurers, 
was  crowded  together  in  mining  camps  or  grouped  here 
and  there  in  little  towns  on  the  plain,  which  became  for 
the  time  the  bases  of  supply  for  the  crowds  among  the 
mountains.  When  peace  with  its  priceless  blessings  was 
restored  in  every  portion  of  the  land,  the  marvellous 
energies  and  activities  which  the  long  struggle  had  devel- 
oped and  sustained  were  directed  into  other  channels  and 
a  period  of  enlargement,  extension  and  prosperity  began 
which  has  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  any  nation  of 
ancient  or  modern  times.     In  less  than  a  year  after  the 

92 


THE  IOWA  FOliWAED  MOVEMENT        93 

last  of  llie  Union  armies  were  disbanded,  tlie  Atlantic 
cable  was  successfully  laid  and  messages  were  flashed 
along  the  rockj'^  bed  of  the  ocean  between  two  great  con- 
tinents. About  the  same  time  the  colossal  task  of  con- 
structing a  railway  over  mouutaius,  valleys  and  plains, 
across  the  continent,  was  commenced  from  the  side  of 
the  Pacific  slope.  The  next  year  work  was  commeuced 
from  the  terminal  of  the  eastern  road  at  Omaha  westward, 
on  the  line  which  had  been  surveyed  over  the  Kocky 
Mountains  to  meet  the  way  which  was  being  prepared 
across  the  Sierra.  With  marvellous  rapidity  a  force  of 
twenty-five  thousand  men  reduced  the  distance  between 
the  competing  bands  of  workmen  mouth  by  month  ;  and, 
as  they  advanced  from  west  to  east  and  from  east  to  west, 
a  fresh  impulse  was  given  to  every  movement  connected 
with  the  development  of  this  portion  of  the  country. 

On  the  10th  of  May,  1869,  the  two  great  divisions  of 
this  trans- continental  railway  were  united  at  Promontory 
Point,  1,030  miles  west  of  Omaha,  with  of&cial  ceremony 
and  unbounded  rejoicing.  Long  before  this  period,  how- 
ever, multitudes  had  already  entered  the  territories  by 
every  wagon  trail  leading  westward,  or  were  then  on 
their  westward  way,  in  anticipation  of  the  advantages 
which  were  sure  to  follow  on  the  line  of  the  iron  trail. 
The  men  of  this  world,  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the 
children  of  light,  were  quick  to  take  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunities opening  up  on  every  hand  ;  but  the  churches 
with  their  uplifting,  life-giving  influences,  were  making 
no  special  effort  to  go  in  and  possess  the  land.  The  bil- 
liard-room, the  concert  saloon,  the  corner  groggery,  the 
dance  hall  and  the  gambling  dens  moved  with  every 
shifting  crowd,  and  were  the  first  places  of  public  resort 
in  every  promising  town.  In  many  places  there  was  no- 
where else  for  the  young  man,  fresh  from  a  Christian 
home,  to  go,  not  even  on  the  Sabbath.     Evil  influences 


94  SHELDON  JACKSON 

of  every  kind  were  at  the  front  in  force,  but  the  good 
lagged  far  behind  in  the  race  for  position  and  power. 
While  waiting  for  these  to  come  up,  many  a  good  resolu- 
tion was  surrendered  and  many  a  promising  life,  which 
might  have  been  a  blessing  to  this  new  land,  was  be- 
clouded and  ruined  forever.  It  is  always  bad  policy, 
as  well  as  sinful  neglect,  to  allow  iniquity  to  be  en- 
trenched in  a  new  community  before  the  Gospel  is  sent  to 
counteract  and  oppose  it ;  and  this  our  missionaries  on 
the  frontiers  had  already  learned  to  their  cost. 

Moved  by  these  considerations  and  thrilled  by  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  momentous  events  which  were  rapidly 
transforming  the  vast  domain  beyond  them,  so  long  given 
over  to  the  Indian  and  the  buffalo,  into  an  empire  of 
peaceful  homes  and  prosperous  communities — the  pro- 
spective abode  of  millions  yet  to  come — the  Synod  of 
Iowa  applied  to  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  for  en- 
dorsement of  their  action  in  appointing  Mr.  Jackson  to 
superintend  the  work  within  their  bounds  and  in  the  re- 
gions beyond,  which  could  not  be  reached  or  successfully 
carried  on  under  the  ordinary  appointments  of  the 
Church.  If  ever  there  was  a  necessity  for  a  district  or 
synodical  missionary,  this  was  the  time  and  the  place. 
Towns  and  villages  were  springing  up  at  intervals  all 
aloug  the  line  of  the  Dnion  Pacific  road,  thousands  of 
emigrants  were  crossing  the  Missouri  Eiver  every  month, 
and  the  occupied  territory  for  which  the  synod  felt  a 
God-given  responsibility,  extended  westward  hundreds 
of  miles  beyond  the  fartliest  outposts  of  missionary  occu- 
pation. This  request,  made  in  the  fall  of  1868,  for  reasons 
already  given,  was  refused.  *  The  announcement  of  this 
refusal  was  a  grievous  disappointment  to  the  applicants. 
The  agency  on  which  they  relied  to  meet  the  emergency 
was  called  into  being  for  the  purpose  they  had  at  heart, 
and  now,  to  all  human  appearance,  without  its  aid  there 


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THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT       95 

was  no  solution  to  the  ever-recnrring  questions  : — "How 
shall  this  multitude  going  beyond  the  reach  of  present 
influences  be  fed  with  the  bread  of  life "?  How  shall  they 
hear  without  a  preacher,  and  how  shall  they  preach  ex- 
cept-they  be  sent?"  We  are  wont  to  lay  great  stress 
upon  our  trained  hosts,  our  well-tested  equipments,  and 
carefully  devised  agencies  for  the  extension  of  Christ's 
kingdom ;  and,  ordinarily,  we  do  well  to  confine  our 
labours  and  activities  to  the  of&cial  channels,  which,  in 
a  sense,  have  been  hallowed  by  the  streams  of  beneficence 
coursing  through  them  from  generation  to  generation  ; 
but  God,  who  rules  over  all  and  can  save  by  few  as  well 
as  by  many,  is  not  dependent  upon  any  of  these  human 
agencies  for  the  advancement  of  His  cause.  If  the  armies 
of  Israel  fail  in  the  hour  of  peril  or  refuse  to  go  forward 
in  the  hour  of  oj)portuuity.  He  can  make  use  of  a  faith- 
ful Gideon,  with  his  three  hundred  men  and  a  few  pitchers 
and  lamps  ;  a  Jonathan  and  his  armour-bearer,  or  a  ruddy 
shepherd  boy  with  his  sling,  to  do  His  work.  In  this 
crisis  hour  as  in  the  former  days,  there  was  a  man  sent 
from  God  to  meet  its  issues  and  inspire  others,  to  accept 
its  responsibilities.  For  a  decade  of  self-denying  minis- 
tries in  the  moral  wastes  of  the  Northwest  he  had  been  in 
training  for  this  mission,  and  when  the  invitation  of  the 
synod  which  was  posted  on  the  fore-front  of  the  line  of 
advance,  came  to  him,  he  regarded  it  as  the  call  of 
God. 

The  unwillingness  of  the  executive  committee  of  the 
Mission  Board  to  approve  of  this  invitation  did  not  affect 
his  view  of  personal  responsibility  or  alter  his  purpose. 
It  was  no  part  of  his  plan,  however,  to  enter  upon  this 
work  without  the  approval  and  authority  of  the  presby- 
teries within  whose  widely-extended  bounds  he  expected 
to  labour.  Hence  he  was  obliged  to  wait  until  they  could 
have  the  opportunity  to  take  official  action  at  their  regu- 


96  SHELDON  JACKSON 

lar  spring  meetings.  Meauwliile,  he  wrote  to  tlio  stated 
clerks  of  the  Synod  of  Iowa  and  of  the  presbyteries  con- 
cerned within  its  bounds,  announcing  his  intention,  if 
the  way  should  be  clear,  to  take  up  the  work  to  which 
they  had  called  him  as  early  as  practicable  in  the  spring, 
"  independently  of,  but  not  in  opposition  to,  the  Board 
of  Domestic  Missions." 

In  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  March,  he  came  to 
Iowa,  and  was  cordially  received  by  the  brethren  whom 
he  visited,  on  the  line  of  his  route  from  Dubuciue  to 
Council  Bluffs.  Two  or  three  days  were  spent  in  looking 
over  the  ground  from  this  standpoint,  with  the  help  of 
the  pastor  of  the  church,  the  Eev.  T.  H.  Cleland,  who 
was  at  that  time  the  efacient  chairman  of  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Committee  of  the  Presbytery  of  Missouri  Eiver.  One 
of  the  days  of  his  visit  was  the  Sabbath,  and  at  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  services  Mr.  Jackson  preached,  by  invi- 
tation, in  Mr.  Cleland's  church.  The  text  of  the  morn- 
ing sermon  : — '■^  Begin  to  possess  that  thou  mayest  inherit 
the  land,"  was  the  key-note  of  the  great  movement  which 
he  and  his  associates  in  Iowa  inaugurated,  in  faith  and 
prayer,  a  few  weeks  later.  On  Monday  morning  follow- 
ing,— March  8th — a  conference  was  held  with  Mr.  Cleland 
and  one  of  his  elders,  Thomas  Officer,  with  respect  to  the 
destitutions  of  the  field,  and  a  list  of  eleven  important 
points  was  prepared,  where  efficient  ministers  were  needed 
at  once.  With  a  view  to  supplying  these  points  it  was 
decided  that  an  appeal  should  be  made  without  delay  to 
the  students  of  the  middle  and  senior  classes  of  the  theo- 
logical seminaries.  This  was  evidently  the  first  step  to 
be  taken  in  anticipation  of  the  action  contemplated  by 
the  presbytery,  and  at  noon  of  the  same  day  Sheldon 
Jackson  took  the  train  for  Chicago.  With  mind  and 
heart  burdened  about  these  spiritual  destitutions,  he  ad- 
dressed the  students  at  Chicago,  Allegheny,  and  Prince- 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT       97 

ton,  urgiug  them,  as  patriots  and  as  the  divinely  accred- 
ited servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  consider  the  claims  of  the 
new  laud — opening  up  so  marvellously — towards  the  set- 
ting sun,  and  if  need  be  to  face  the  difficulties  and  brave 
the  dangers  for  the  Gosiiel'ssake,  which  in  all  probability 
awaited  them  there. 

At  the  close  of  these  addresses,  which  produced  a  pro- 
found impression,  conferences  were  held  with  those  who 
were  specially  interested  and  a  list  of  names  were  secured  i"^ 
of  all,  not  otherwise  pledged,  who  were  willing  to  go 
when  their  services  should  be  required.  To  the  volun- 
teers of  the  middle  classes  a  sufficient  amount  was  prom- 
ised to  defray  their  actual  expenses,  while  to  those  who 
had  almost  comi^leted  their  course  and  were  ready  to  go 
as  missionary  pastors,  the  prospect  was  held  out  of  a 
competent  support,  based  wholly  upon  the  promises  of 
God,  as  He  should  see  fit  to  send  it  through  His  servants 
in  the  churches. 

While  on  this  errand,  Mr,  Jackson  availed  himself  of 
the  opportunity  to  confer  with  some  of  the  representative 
men  of  the  church  in  Pittsburg,  Philadeli^hia,  and  New 
York,  and  he  received  much  encouragement ;  and  in  sev- 
eral instances  promises  of  substantial  aid.  In  his  diary, 
under  date  of  March  14th,  he  wrote  : — 

"While  praying  for  money  to  pay  my  expenses  home, 
a  servant  rapped  at  the  door  and  handed  me  an  en- 
velope which  contained  650.  Again  I  went  to  the  throne 
of  grace  with  thanksgiving.  Another  rap, — and  an  en- 
velope with  $25  enclosed  was  handed  in." 

The  next  day  he  made  this  entry,  March  15th—"  Took 
breakfast  with  Dr.  Van  Dyke,  who  i3romised  me  help 
next  fall.  Had  meeting  with  the  j)astors  in  Mr.  Alfred 
H.  Kellog's  study  at  12  m.  I  laid  before  them  the  desti- 
tutions of  the  West,  and  Dr.  John  Hall,  Dr.  J.  C.  Mur- 
ray, and  others  agreed  to  provide  for  the  support  of  one 


98  SHELDON  JACKSON 

or  more  men  of  the  middle  class  who  should  go  out  for 
the  summer." 

One  of  the  encouraging  signs  of  the  times,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  forward  movement  for  which  these  prepar- 
ations were  being  made,  was  the  expectation,  growing 
more  definite  and  certain  every  day,  of  a  reunion  between 
the  Old  and  the  New  School  branches  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  This,  to  the  men  on  the  Western  frontier, 
whose  eyes  were  on  the  distant  horizon  line,  meant  more 
than  a  concentration  of  forces  and  a  union  of  effort. 
They  regarded  it  as  significant  of  a  new  departure  in  the 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  united  Church,  which 
should  include  in  its  sphere  of  labour  the  whole  land  from 
sea  to  sea,  and  stimulate  its  awakened  membership  to 
wider  conquests  and  mightier  achievements. 

In  this  epoch-making  period,  when  two  great  divisions 
of  the  Church,  long  separated,  were  drawing  closely  to- 
gether ;  when  two  great  railroads,  starting  from  the  east- 
ern and  western  shores  of  the  continent,  were  rapidly 
converging  towards  their  appointed  meeting-place,  the 
Iowa  forward  movement  was  inaugurated  without  obser- 
vation by  three  mission  presbyteries  bordering  on  the 
great  uuevangelized  West.  For  boldness  of  conception 
and  promptness  of  action  and  transcendent  importance  of 
result,  this  movement,  born  of  the  emergency,  is  without 
a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  evangelization  of  our  land. 

The  Presbytery  of  Des  Moines,  in  session  at  Osceola, 
sounded  the  first  note  of  advance,  and  thus  in  point  of 
time  has  the  honour  of  leading  in  this  important  movement. 

The  following  is  an  official  copy  of  the  action  taken  : — 

Osceola,  Iowa, 
April  24.,  i86g. 
Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson, 

Dear  Brother: — By  llie  unanimous  vote  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Des  Moines  in  session  at  Osceola*  April  22—24,  you  ar^ 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT        99 

appointed  and  invited  to  act  as  district  missionary  in  Central 
and  Western  Iowa,  as  far  as  this  presbytery  has  jurisdiction. 
(Signed)  David  S.  Tappan,  Moderator. 

J.  M,  Batchelder,  Stated  Clerk. 


The  Presbytery  of  Fort  Dodge  wliicli  took  similar 
action  at  Clarksville,  on  the  8th  day  of  May,  covered  a 
section  of  the  state  north  of  the  Presbytery  of  Des 
Moines,  and  both  were  bounded  on  the  west  by  the 
frontier  Presbytery  of  the  Missouri  Eiver.  At  this  time 
there  were  fifteen  ministers  and  twenty  chui'ches,  nine 
of  which  were  reported  vacant,  on  the  roll  of  the  last 
named  presbytery.  About  one-half  of  these  organiza- 
tions were  on  the  Nebraska  side  of  the  river,  the 
farthest  to  the  west  being  less  than  sixty  miles  from  the 
Iowa  line.  In  1869,  the  New  School  branch  reported  but 
four  churches  in  Nebraska,  one  in  Omaha,  and  three  in 
the  valley  of  the  Missouri  River.  There  was  not  then  a 
single  Presbyterian  church  along  the  line  of  the  Union 
and  Central  Pacific  Railways  between  Omaha  and  Sacra- 
mento, California. 

By  reason  of  its  unique  position,  the  Presbytery  of 
Missouri  River  had  a  place  of  commanding  importance 
in  the  movement  we  are  considering.  The  outlying  ter- 
ritory', which  virtually  belonged  to  its  jurisdiction,  ex- 
tended M'ithout  a  break  to  the  limits  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Stockton,  on  the  Pacific  slope, — a  stretch  of  more  than 
eighteen  hundred  miles.  To  the  north  and  south,  the 
whole  land  throughout  this  extent  was  open  to  civiliza- 
tion and  Christian  influence,  from  British  Columbia  to 
the  borders  of  Mexico.  To  be  a  district  missionary  un- 
der the  direction  of  this  presbytery  and  the  two  neigh- 
bouring bodies  which  entered  into  an  alliance  with  it, 
meant,  as  Sheldon  Jackson  understood  it,  tho  supervision 
and  evangelization  of  a  domain  of  magnificent  dimensions 
and  untold  possibilities,  into  which  multitudes  were  go- 


100  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ing  from  all  lands  and  nationalities,  in  advance  of  the 
Christian  teacher  and  the  uplifting  influences  of  a  Chris- 
tian civilization. 

The  presbytery  met  at  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  on  the  even- 
ing of  Ai)ril  29th.  On  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  Mr. 
Jackson  and  two  of  the  ministers  of  the  presbytery, — 
Thomas  H.  Cleland,  Jr.,  and  John  C.  Elliott — ascended 
a  high  bluff  on  the  edge  of  the  city,  known  as  Prospect 
Hill,  to  look  abroad  over  the  land.  From  this  outlook, 
portions  of  Iowa,  Nebraska,  South  Dakota,  and  Min- 
nesota were  visible. 

To  the  east  and  south  one-third  of  Iowa,  except  six  or 
seven  feeble  organizations  in  the  river  valley,  was  as  yet 
unoccupied  by  the  Presbyterian  Church.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  to  the  southwest  and  west,  nine-tenths 
of  Nebraska  was  in  the  same  condition.  In  the  territory 
of  Dakota,  which  stretched  away  to  the  northwest,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  mission  organizations  among  the 
Sioux  Indians,  under  the  care  of  the  Foreign  Board,  there 
was  not  a  single  church  of  either  branch  of  our  ecclesias- 
tical household.  In  the  widening  circle,  far  beyond  the 
sweep  of  vision,  including  the  territories  of  Wyoming, 
Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  Nevada,  Idaho, 
Montana,  Washington,  and  Alaska, — an  aggregate  area 
of  1,768,659  square  miles,  or  nearly  one-half  of  the  total 
area  of  the  United  States,  there  were,  exclusive  of 
the  Indian  mission  stations,  only  eleven  Presbyterian 
churches.  Distributed  in  sections  throughout  the  whole 
of  this  vast  region,  there  were  unnumbered  hosts  of  de- 
luded Mormons,  semi-Pagan  Mexicans,  sun-worship- 
ping Pueblos,  deeply  degraded  Eskimos,  demon-wor- 
shipping Alaskans,  with  tens  of  thousands  of  Indians 
in  reservations  or  roving  wild  over  the  plains  and  moun- 
tains. 

On  that  mount  of  vision,  the  hearts  of  these  pioneer 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      101 

missionaries  were  stirred  with  deep  emotion  as  they 
realized  the  extent  of  the  spiritual  destitution  which  con- 
fronted them,  and,  kneeling  down  on  the  ground,  they 
poured  out  the  desires  of  their  souls  in  strong  crying  for 
help  and  strength,  self-denial  and  consecration,  so  that 
without  shrinking  they  and  those  whom  they  represented 
might  go  forward  in  the  Master's  name  to  occupy  and 
possess  this  goodly  land/  The  spirit  of  this  prayer-meet- 
ing and  the  impressions  of  the  hour,  were  carried  into  the 
sessions  of  the  presbytery,  and,  by  unanimous  action, 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  appointed  "  Superintendent  of  mis- 
sions for  Western  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Dakota,  Idaho,  Mon- 
tana, Wyoming  and  Utah."  To  this  was  added,  in  the 
original  commission,  the  significant  clause,  ''or  as  far  as 
.  our  jurisdiction  extends." 

Appointments  of  this  nature  have  not  been  an  unusual 
thing  in  the  history  of  the  Church :  but  it  is  seldom,  if 
ever,  that  such  a  commission  has  been  given  without  any 
provision  for  financial  support.  By  all  parties  it  was 
understood  that  there  was  not  a  dollar  in  the  treasury  of 
the  presbyteries  that  could  be  approi^riated  for  the  salary 
or  travelling  expenses  of  the  superintendent,  or  those 
whom  he  should  send  out  to  labour  under  their  jurisdic- 
tion. It  should  be  noted,  also,  that  at  this  time  the  ex- 
penses of  living  at  any  point  along  the  line  of  the  Union 
Pacific  road,  or  in  the  new  towns  of  the  territories  which 
it  opened  up,  were  two  or  three  times  greater  than  in  the 
older  communities  of  the  East.  The  minimum  salary  of 
$1,000,  wliere  much  travelling  was  required,  was  found  to 
^  be  inadequate  for  the  support  of  a  missionary  on  this  field 


'  In  comraemoration  of  this  historic  event  the  Synod  of  Iowa  ap- 
pointed a  committee  in  1904  to  erect  a  suitable  monument  on  Prospect 
Kill ;  a  site  for  the  same  having  been  donated  by  the  mayor  and  city 
council. 


102  SHELDON  JACKSON 

without  the  most  rigid  economy  in  household  and  ordi- 
nary expenses. 

Despite  all  the  difficulties,  which  to  many  seemed  in- 
surmountable, Sheldon  Jackson  without  hesitation  ac- 
cepted the  appointment,  with  all  its  risks  and  responsi- 
bilities. The  basis  of  his  trust  was  the  Divine  promises 
and  where  the  eye  of  sense  could  not  discern  any  indica- 
tions of  encouragement  he  believed  that  God  would  open 
up  a  way.  The  action  of  the  Missouri  Eiver  Presbytery 
was  taken  on  the  1st  of  May,  1869,  and  within  one  week 
from  that  date  Mr.  Jackson  had  posted  three  men  at  im- 
portant points  on  the  Union  Pacific  Eailway.  To  the 
Eev.  J.  N.  Hutchison  was  given  the  oversight  and 
pastoral  care  of  a  section  lying  between  the  Missouri 
Eiver  and  Julesburg  on  the  eastern  edge  of  Colorado,  a 
distance  of  375  miles  ;  to  the  Eev.  John  L.  Gage,  formerly 
a  fellow  labourer  in  Minnesota,  the  section  between  Jules- 
burg and  Eawlins,  a  distance  of  318  miles ;  and  to  the 
Eev.  Melancthon  Hughes  was  assigned  the  remaining  sec- 
tion from  the  Sweetwater  Mines  and  Green  Eiver, 
Wyoming,  to  Corinne,  Utah,  a  stretch  of  292  miles.  As 
far  as  possible  each  of  the  above  named  missionaries  sup- 
jjlied  the  towns  within  these  limits  with  preaching  at 
stated  intervals,  until  other  labourers  came  to  their  re- 
lief. The  last  spike  on  the  great  transcontinental  rail- 
way was  driven  on  the  tenth  day  of  May,  nine  days 
after  Mr.  Jackson  had  received  his  appointment ;  and 
yet  before  that  event  took  place  he  had  seized  all  the 
strategic  points  on  the  Hue  from  Omaha  to  the  ter- 
minus of  the  Union  Pacific  in  Utah  Territory.  A  few 
weeks  later,  four  young  men  from  the  middle  classes  of 
the  theological  seminaries  were  sent  out  in  the  same  way, 
'■ '  each  to  occupy  from  one  to  two  counties. ' '  One  of  these 
men  was  Josiah  Welch,  who  afterwards  became  the  first 
pastor  of  the  church  of  Salt  Lake,  Utah.     Before  eight 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      103 

mouths  had  passed  away,  ten  new  missionaries  were  at 
work  in  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  and  Utah. 
In  each  case  the  salary  was  dependent  in  part  upon  volun- 
tary offerings  which  came  through  the  prayers  and  personal 
appeals  of  the  superintendent  and  his  interested  friends. 

The  return  mails,  he  says,  brought  back  the  responses 
in  bank  checks  ranging  in  amount  from  $5  to  $500.  So 
that,  as  the  months  came  and  passed,  not  a  missionary 
could  say  that  he  had  not  been  paid,  and  paid  in  full. 
' '  Lacked  ye  anything  ? ' '  and  they  said,  ^ '  Nothing. ' '  This 
was  preeminently  a  work  of  faith  and  consecration,  as 
marvellous  in  its  inception  and  prompt  execution  as 
in  its  results. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  from  May  1,  1869,  to 
December  31,  1870,  Mr.  Jackson  received  from  private 
sources  for  the  work  an  aggregate  of  $10,037.79.  This 
"  Eaven  Fund"  coutinued  as  long  as  it  was  essential  to 
tlie  work  ;  and  when  the  flow  of  beneficence  was  once 
started  in  that  direction  it  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  stop 
it  by  general  edict  or  otherwise.  Like  the  gifts  of  the 
Macedonian  church,  much  of  it  was  given  to  the  recipient 
in  addition  to  their  ordinary  offering,  "praying  him 
with  much  entreaty  that  he  would  receive  the  gift  and 
take  upon  him  the  fellowship  of  the  ministering  to  the 
saints."  Several  years  ago,  says  a  writer  in  the  New 
York  Evangelist,  when  a  prominent  person  in  Wall  Street 
was  asked  to  give  help  to  a  missionary  enterprise  on  new 
territory,  he  was  told  that  Jackson  had  it  in  hand,  and 
immediately  doubled  his  gift.  "That  man,"  was  the 
judgment  of  this  keen  observer  of  men  and  missions, 
' '  stands  for  so  much  in  my  esteem  and  confidence  that  I 
will  give  him  double  and  ask  no  questions."  It  was  this 
implicit  faith  in  the  man  and  his  direct,  common-sense 
methods  that  won  for  him  friends  and  support  when 
obliged,  as  in  this  case,  to  act  upon  his  own  respousibil- 


104  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ity,  anticipating  the  slower  movements  of  the  Church  to 
which  he  was  so  devotedly  attached.  It  is  easy  to  find 
fault  with  boldly  aggressive  movements,  and  in  view  of 
all  the  circumstances  it  is  not  strange  that  the  motives  of 
the  prime  mover  in  this  undertaking  should  be  misunder- 
stood, or  that  his  methods  should  be  adversely  criticised 
by  those  who  were  far  removed  from  the  field  of  action,  or 
who  were  so  wedded  to  ultra-conservative  ways  that  they 
could  not  tolerate  any  new  departures  when  confronted 
by  unusual  experiences  or  emergencies. 

In  the  crisis  hour  of  a  great  battle  of  our  Civil  War,  as 
the  story  goes,  the  standard-bearer  of  a  coloured  regi- 
ment dashed  ahead  of  the  wavering  line  to  which  he  be- 
longed and  called  to  the  men  to  follow.  Feariug  that  the 
flag  would  be  captured,  the  ofiicer  of  the  colour  company 
shouted  out:  "Bring  back  those  colours."  "  Marse 
Captain,"  was  the  prompt  response,  "dis  yeh  flag  ueb- 
ber  go  back."  "Bring  up  dem  men  dere."  With  a 
rush  the  men  were  brought  up  to  the  flag  and  the  coveted 
position  was  gained.  So  in  this  crisis  hour  of  our  home 
mission  advance,  when  the  line  was  wavering  and  halt- 
ing in  the  face  of  a  great  opportunity,  this  veteran  of  the 
ranks  seized  the  standard  of  the  Cross,  beneath  which 
was  a  fluttering  pennant  of  blue,  advanced  it  swiftly  to 
the  front,  and,  planting  it  far  in  advance  of  the  line,  called 
upon  the  Presbyterian  hosts  to  bring  their  men  up  to  it. 
The  fact  that  the  Church  did  come  up  to  it  is  the  best 
justification  of  his  motives  and  methods. 

Sometimes  by  friends,  as  well  as  by  foes,  Sheldon  Jack- 
son has  been  sketched  as  a  "  free  lance  "  in  mission  fields 
by  preference  and  natural  inclination.  This  representa- 
tion is  not  warranted  by  facts.  His  early  training  was 
along  conservative  lines,  and  at  heart  he  was  intensely 
loyal  to  the  ordinary  methods  and  established  agencies 
of  the  Church. 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      105 

This  is  evident  from  all  the  records  of  his  work,  and 
especially  in  his  correspondence  with  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions.  On  the  6th  of  April,  a  short  time  before  the 
action  of  the  Iowa  presbyteries,  he  tendered  his  services 
as  a  "volunteer  in  some  field  of  wide  destitution,  north 
of  the  fever  and  ague  line,  where  he  could  do  the  Church 
and  the  Board  good  service."  At  a  later  date.  May  7th, 
one  week  after  he  had  received  his  appointment  from  the 
Presbytery  of  Missouri  Eiver,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  G.  W. 
Musgrave,  explaining  the  situation  and  renewing  his  re- 
quest for  an  appointment  under  the  Home  Board  in  case 
they  could  see  their  way  clear  to  endorse  the  action  of 
the  Iowa  presbyteries.     In  this  letter  he  says : — 

"I  sought  and  received  the  unanimous  appointment 
of  the  presbyteries  because  I  did  not  wish  to  enter  the 
field  without  their  sanction.  If  the  Board  is  ready  to 
undertake  the  work,  the  action  of  these  bodies  is  their 
endorsement  of  your  appointment.  If  not,  I  am  in- 
structed by  them  to  codperate  with  and  labour  for  the  in- 
terests of  the  Board  as  if  commissioned  by  it.  The 
presbyteries  will  rejoice  when  the  funds  of  the  Board 
will  enable  them  to  commission  me  to  this  or  kindred 
work."  .  .  .  ''I  have  made  this  subject  a  matter  of 
earnest  prayer  since  last  fall  and  now  feel  that  '  woe  is 
me  if  I  do  not  enter  upon  the  work.'  I  think  I  have  an 
intelligent  appreciation  of  its  difticulties  and  sacrifices, 
and  yet  the  greatest  hesitation  has  been  from  the  fear 
that  my  motives  and  work  would  be  misapprehended  by 
the  Board.  But,  dear  brother,  while  I  greatly  prefer  to 
work  under  your  commission,  yet,  if  the  Board  cannot 
appoint  me,  I  most  earnestly  desire  that  they  would  con- 
sider me  just  as  loyal  to  thera  as  if  working  under  their 
commission.  My  whole  heart  is  in  their  Avork,  and  I  can- 
not be  otherwise  than  true  to  their  best  interests."  Fol- 
lowing this  statement  he  indicates  his  willingness  to  raise 


106  SHELDON  JACKSON 

his  own  salary  if  the  Board  will  permit  it  and  also  ex- 
presses the  hope,  based  upon  assiirauces  already  given  by 
friends  and  well-wishers,  that  he  would  be  able  to  add  at 
least  $5,000  a  year  to  the  treasury  of  the  Board,  in 
case*  he  were  appointed  by  them,  over  and  above  what 
would  otherwise  be  received  into  its  treasury. 

The  attitude  of  the  executive  committee  was  not 
changed  by  this  frank  avowal  of  motives  and  intentions  ; 
but  it  is  possible  that  it  had  an  influence  upon  their  sub- 
sequent action  at  a  later  date. 

After  making  provision  for  the  supply  of  the  most 
needy  i^oints  in  his  new  field  of  labour,  Mr.  Jackson  went 
to  Minnesota  to  arrange  for  the  removal  of  his  family. 
He  had  already  selected  Council  Bluffs  as  his  place  of 
residence ;  and  on  the  25th  of  May  he  returned  to  this 
city  and  at  once  began  to  outline  his  plans  for  the  work 
of  the  summer.  The  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
of  Council  Bluffs,  the  Eev.  T.  H.  Cleland,  Jr.,  one  of  the 
trio  already  mentioned  in'connection  with  the  ''  Hilltop  " 
prayer- meeting  at  Sioux  City,  proved  to  be  a  valuable 
counsellor  and  helper  ;  aiding  in  the  office  work  as  far  as 
practicable,  so  that  the  new  superintendent  might  be 
free  to  undertake  the  more  important  duties  of  the  field- 
work,  which  at  the  outset  called  for  all  his  time  and 
strength.  With  genuine  Western  hospitality  he  received 
Mr.  Jackson  and  family  into  his  own  home  until  a  suit- 
able house  could  be  provided  for  their  occupancy.  ' '  From 
that  time,"  says  Mr.  Cleland,  ^'his  house  and  mine  were 
Presbyterian  hotels  for  the  missionaries  starting  out  for 
the  frontier." 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Cle- 
land, under  date  of  August  7,  1905,  gives  his  personal 
impressions  of  Dr.  Jackson  and  the  far-reaching  influence 
of  the  movement  in  which  he  had  so  prominent  a  part : — 

"  I  was  from  the  first  impressed  with  his  faith  in  God, 


THE  IOWA  FORWAKD  MOVEMENT   107 

his  absolute  consecration  to  the  work,  and  his  indomitable 
energy.  If  men  were  needed  for  the  work  he  could  im- 
part his  own  enthusiasm  to  the  students  leaving  the  semi- 
nary ;  and  they  counted  it  a  joy  to  be  on  the  frontier, 
where  they  could  *  preach  the  Gospel  in  the  regions  be- 
yond, and  not  to  boast  in  another  man's  line  of  things 
made  ready  to  the  hand.'  But  the  thing  that  astonished 
me  was,  that  when  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  had 
no  money  for  the  frontier,  Dr.  Jackson  could  go  to  pri- 
vate individuals  in  the  East  and  retui-n  with  the  adequate 
sinews  of  war.  I  recall  that  he  ferreted  out  one  man  in 
the  East  who  had  interests  in  Truckee,  Nevada,  whom  he 
interested  to  maintain  a  missiouaiy  for  that  point. 

"  Dr.  Jackson  set  the  pace  for  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
making  it  the  pioneer  missionary  force  for  the  Middle 
"West  and  the  Pacific  coast.  This  liad  been  supposed  to 
be  the  honour  that  belonged  to  the  Methodist  Church 
hitherto,  but  he  x>roved  that  Presbyteriauism  was  not 
only  heavy  artillery,  but  a  mountain  howitzer  as  well, 
when  the  necessity  called  for  it.  He  had  faith  in  the 
Gospel,  and  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  rightfully  in- 
terpreting it,  and  also  in  the  possibilities  of  the  new 
country  in  the  regions  beyond.  He  did  not  hesitate  to 
organize  a  small  group  in  a  village  into  a  church,  because 
he  knew  there  were  '  more  to  follow '  ;  and  he  would 
seize  the  advantage  of  being  first  on  the  ground. 

"He  was  preeminently  a  man  of  faith  in  God  and 
seemed  to  his  co-labourers  'to  walk  with  God.'  I  have 
listened  to  few  men  whose  prayers  were  more  simple, 
unctuous,  or  mighty  in  their  grasp  of  the  Divine  promises. 
He  was  an  inspiration.  Having  no  fear,  but  large  fiiith, 
he  inspired  all  about  him  with  confidence  ;  and  his  work 
was  bound  to  succeed.  There  wavS  nothing  magisterial 
in  his  bishopric.  He  asked  no  missionary  to  endure 
what  he  was  not  cheerfully  doing  and  sacrificing  himself. 


108  SHELDON  JACKSON 

He  cared  for  his  gospel  soldiers  like  a  true  general.  He 
used  his  pen  and  his  personal  influence  to  obtain  '  Boxes ' 
and  money  where  salaries  were  inadequate.  His  own 
means  he  used  as  freely  in  the  work,  and  he  was  bold  to 
ask  others  to  do  the  same.  He  counted  himself  a  pio- 
neer. So  that  as  rapidly  as  the  work  developed  he  would 
move  westward.  He  changed  his  residence  from  us  in 
Council  Bluffs  early  and  moved  to  Denver,  to  be  closer 
to  the  '  firing  line.' 

"  He,  beyond  any  other  man  whose  history  I  can  recall, 
comes  nearer  to  being  a  reproduction  of  the  Apostle  Paul, 
in  his  grasp  of  strategic  points,  in  his  absolute  consecra- 
tion to  his  work,  and  in  his  confidence  in  the  Gospel  as 
the  power  of  God  to  regenerate  the  heart  and  correct  the 
sad  disorders  of  our  earth.  He  is  the  Francis  Xavier  of 
Protestant  America  in  spending  and  being  spent.  Take 
him  all  in  all,  he  ranks  with  the  foremost  of  the  brave 
men  to  whom  the  American  Church  and  the  American 
State  should  pay  highest  honours,  as  the  builder  of  a 
Nation  and  the  founder  of  a  Church." 

Another  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  this 
movement,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  men  "on  the 
firing  line,"  is  given  herewith,  in  slightly  abbreviated 
form.  The  writer  is  the  Eev.  David  Stanton  Tap- 
pan,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of  Circleville,  Ohio,  who  had  the 
honour  of  being  moderator  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Des  Moines,  which  took  the  initial  action  : — 


I  do  not  think  it  is  too  much  to  say  that  Sheldon  Jackson's 
entrance  upon  this  work  marked  a  radical  change  in  the  spirit 
and  methods  of  conducting  home  mission  work  and  was  a 
great  step  in  advance.  In  the  minds  of  many  of  our  ministers 
in  the  West,  at  that  time,  our  Church  hitherto  had  pursued 
altogether  too  conservative  and  timid  a  poHcy  in  its  advances 
into  new  territory.  There  was  undue  hesitancy  in  undertaking 
new  work  and  in  putting  it  upon  a  firm  basis.     Missionaries 


THE  IOWA  FOKWARD  MOVEMENT      109 

were  not  appointed,  and,  above  all,  churches  must  not  be 
organized  until  the  permanency  and  growth  of  a  community 
or  projected  town  was  assured  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt. 
Those  who  had  the  shaping  of  our  policy  in  their  hands  seemed 
to  be  perpetually  haunted  with  the  fear  of  "boom  towns,"  and 
the  spectre  of  dead  churches.  And  so  rather  than  organize 
one  church  that  might  soon  prove  a  failure  they  would  miss  the 
starting  of  a  dozen  that  would  have  lived  and  prospered.  The 
result  was  that  often  when  we  had  waited  until  it  seemed  per- 
fectly safe  to  organize  a  Presbyterian  church,  there  was  little 
need  of  one,  and  the  work  was  crippled  by  our  delay.  Much 
of  the  best  Presbyterian  element  had  been  gathered  into  other 
churches  and  could  not  be  recovered.  So  that  the  consequence 
was  that  we  were  falling  to  the  rear  in  the  occupation  of  the 
western  territories.  Sheldon  Jackson,  with  the  spirit  of  the 
true  pioneer,  at  once  adopted  a  bolder  and  more  aggressive 
policy.  The  missionary  was  located  and  the  church  established 
with  the  advent  of  the  first  immigrants,  and  these  became  mag- 
nets and  centres  towards  which  Christian  institutions  and  ac- 
tivities crystallized. 

Instead  of  waiting  for  the  communities  to  build  up  and  give 
assurance  not  simply  of  permanency,  but  of  a  supporting 
Presbyterian  constituency,  the  missionary  and  the  church 
entered  the  new  territories  upon  precisely  the  same  footing  and 
with  the  same  risks  as  the  farmer,  merchant,  and  lawyer,  to 
fight  for  existence,  to  make  for  themselves  homes,  and  to  dem- 
onstrate their  right  to  live.  The  great  West  was  being  settled 
and  the  institutions  of  society  and  government  were  being 
shaped  and  fixed  with  a  rapidity  never  before  equalled  in  this, 
or  any  other,  land.  Many  good  people  living  in  the  older  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  far  from  these  scenes  of  strife  and  growth, 
failed  utterly  to  understand  the  situation  or  appreciate  the  ne- 
cessity for  doing  quickly  whatever  was  to  be  done,  if  any  place 
was  to  be  found  for  the  doing  of  it.  Fortunately,  Sheldon 
Jackson  sounded  the  key-note  of  our  advance  into  the  regions 
beyond  the  Missouri.  He  believed  that  the  Presbyterian 
Church  was  called  of  God  and  fitted  to  do  i)ioneer  work.  He 
was  not  deterred  from  attempting  anything  by  the  fear  of  fail- 
ure. He  was  not  afraid  to  undertake  great  things  and  to  incur 
risks  for  the  Master,  and  he  had  the  faith  to  expect  great 
things. 

Under  his  leadership,  the  Presbyterian  Church  assumed  its 


110  SHELDON  JACKSON 

full  share  of  responsibility  for  the  evangelization  of  the  great 
West ;  ap.d,  whatever  had  been  its  failure  in  the  past,  now 
stood  in  the  very  front  rank  of  those  who  were  fighting  to  win 
the  land  for  Christ. 

Neither  Dr.  Jackson  nor  his  most  enthusiastic  admirers  will 
claim  that  he  made  no  mistakes.  Some  enterprises  were  in- 
augurated that  proved  failures,  some  churches  were  organized 
that  died  an  "early  death  "  ;  but,  after  all,  these  were  but  few 
in  number  compared  with  those  who  lived  and  prospered,  be- 
coming centres  of  blessing  to  the  land,  and  sources  of  influence 
and  strength  to  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

As  a  young  minister  in  close  touch  with  that  region,  I  hailed 
with  delight  Sheldon  Jackson's  advent  and  enthusiastically 
supported  his  aggressive  policy,  believing  that  it  was  the  only 
one  that  could  possibly  succeed  in  the  titanic  struggle  then 
going  on  for  the  possession  of  the  land. 

Looking  back  over  the  thirty-five  years  that  have  since 
elapsed  and  viewing  the  actions  of  that  day  in  the  light  of 
subsequent  history,  I  am  still  more  firmly  convinced  that  this 
was  the  true  and  wise  course  to  pursue.  It  did  much  to  con- 
serve that  region  for  morality  and  religion,  and  laid  broad  and 
deep  in  those  new  states  the  foundation  of  our  own  Church. 


The  third  person  of  the  trio  mentioned  in  connection 
with  the  "Hilltop"  prayer-meeting, — the  Eev.  John  C. 
Elliott,  advocated  the  same  views  and  was  equally  en- 
thusiastic in  his  support  of  Sheldon  Jackson's  aggressive 
work. 

Such  testimony  from  representative  men  at  the  front, 
whose  loyalty  to  the  Church  and  self-denying  service  in 
this  crisis  hour  on  her  behalf  should  not  be  forgotten, 
amply  justifies  the  advance  movement  of  the  Iowa  pres- 
byteries and  confirms  all  that  has  been  written  with  re- 
spect to  its  necessity  and  importance. 

Starting  out  from  his  new  home  and  base  of  operations 
on  the  28th  of  May,  Sheldon  Jackson  made  his  first 
journey  across  the  plains  to  Cheyenne,  at  the  base  of  the 
Bocky  Mountains.     At  Fremont,   en  route,  he  made  a 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      ill 

detour  of  several  miles  iu  a  rough  lumber  wagon  for  the 
purpose  of  visiting  a  i3rosperous  little  community,  known 
as  the  "Bell  Creek  Settlement."  To  the  great  joy  of 
many  in  this  region,  he  tarried  with  them  over  the  Sab- 
bath and  preached  in  an  unfinished  house  to  a  congrega- 
tion of  sixty  persons.  One  of  his  hearers,  a  woman  of 
culture  and  refinement,  came  on  horseback,  making  use 
of  a  loose  blanket  as  a  substitute  for  a  side-saddle.  Not 
less  primitive  was  another  outfit  consisting  of  a  lumber 
wagon  with  plank  seats  drawn  by  four  oxen. 

At  the  close  of  this  service  a  Presbyterian  church  was 
organized  with  eight  members  and  one  ruling  elder. 
Cheyenne  was  reached  Tuesday  evening,  June  1st.  At 
this  time  detachments  of  soldiers  were  stationed  at  inter- 
vals all  along  the  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  road  to  guard 
against  the  attacks  of  hostile  Indians. 

Happily  for  all  concerned,  the  most  formidable  of  these 
treacherous  and  vindictive  rovers  of  the  plains  were 
forced  back  soon  afterwards  to  the  mountains,  or  were 
compelled  to  live  on  reservations.  The  removal  of  this 
menace,  which  hitherto  had  prevented  the  extension  of 
farming  settlements  beyond  the  outskirts  of  Grand 
Island, — fifty-three  miles  west  of  Omaha — gave  a  new 
impulse  to  emigration  and  settlement  along  the  line  of 
the  Platte  River  and  its  tributaries. 

At  Cheyenne,  which  he  describes  as  a  "  city  of  shanties, 
only  two  years  old,  but  of  great  prospective  importance," 
two  days  were  spent  in  securing  the  help  and  cooperation 
of  those  who  Avere  favourable  to  the  oi-ganization,  in  the 
near  future,  of  a  Presbyterian  church.  At  a  meeting  of 
interested  citizens,  on  the  evening  of  the  second  day,  the 
plans  of  the  superintendent  were  approved  and  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  secure  subscriptions  and  pur- 
chase suitable  lots  for  a  house  of  worship.  Four  days 
later,   this   tireless  worker  was    east    of  the   Missouri 


112  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Eiver  and  took  part  in  a  Sabbath- school  convention 
at  Des  Moines,  in  Central  Iowa.  On  the  13th  of  June, 
he  organized  the  Eed  Oak  Junction  church,  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of  Des  Moines,  and  the  next 
day  travelled  thirty-five  miles  in  a  lumber  wagon  on 
the  home  stretch  towards  Council  Bluffs.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  15th,  he  boarded  an  east-bound  train  for 
Pittsburg  and  New  York,  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
funds  for  the  erection  of  church  buildings  in  the  new 
towns  and  missionary  stations  along  the  line  of  the  trans- 
continental road.  In  this  he  was  successful  beyond  his 
expectations,  and  after  a  week  of  canvassing  and  public 
presentation  of  his  cause  he  returned  to  Council  Bluffs  by 
way  of  Chicago.  While  on  this  errand,  he  received  a 
gift  of  $125  from  a  personal  friend  in  Pittsburg,  and 
from  one  firm  in  the  same  city — James  Wood  &  Co. — a 
check  for  $500. 

Two  weeks  later,  he  was  again  on  his  way  westward, 
with  a  view  to  making  an  extensive  tour  among  the  new 
towns  and  mining  camps  of  the  Eocky  Mountains.  The 
first  Sabbath  on  the  way  out,  July  18th,  was  spent  at 
Cheyenne.  This  prospective  city,  the  capital  of  Wy- 
oming Territory,  is  a  mile  nearer  the  heavens  than  the 
city  on  the  Missouri  Eiver  from  which  Sheldon  Jackson 
started,  but  it  was  as  notable  at  that  time  for  its  depth  of 
wickedness  as  for  its  height  of  elevation.  The  daily 
paper  which  announced  the  appearance  of  the  Eev.  John 
L.  Gage,  the  first  missionary  sent  to  this  place,  also  gave 
notice  of  a  dog-  and  wildcat-fight  in  the  afternoon  of 
the  Sabbath  ;  and  some  that  heard  the  Gospel  in  the  morn- 
ing attended  the  latter,  which  of  course  drew  the  larger 
crowd.  There  were  some,  however,  in  Cheyenne,  in  the 
midst  of  evil  influences,  as  in  other  places  of  ill-repute  in 
those  early  days,  who  loved  the  Lord  and  thought  upon 
His  name ;   and  by  these  persons  all  that  was  good  and 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      113 

life-giving  was  fostered  and  maintained.  At  tlie  close  of 
tlie  service  on  Sabbath  morning,  which  was  held  in  a 
schoolhouse,  Mr.  Jackson,  assisted  by  Mr.  Gage,  organ- 
ized a  church  with  three  members.  This  was  the  day  of 
small  things,  but  the  same  church  to-day  has  a  member- 
ship of  355  ;  and  through  all  the  intervening  years  has 
exerted  untold  influences  for  good.  The  railway  com- 
pany gave  encouragement  to  the  new  enterprise  by  donat- 
ing two  valuable  lots  for  a  house  of  worship.  The  next 
objective  point  was  South  Pass,  the  principal  town  of  the 
Sweetwater  mining  region,  in  the  western  portion  of 
Wyoming  Territory.  The  only  available  route  at  this 
time  was  by  rail  to  Bryan,  on  the  Union  Pacific  road,  and 
thence  northward  a  hundred  miles  by  stage-coach  over  a 
dreary  waste  of  sand  and  sage  brush.  An  hour  after 
midnight,  on  the  morning  following  his  dej)arture  from 
Cheyenne,  Sheldon  Jackson  reached  the  station  at  Bryan. 
Passing  out  into  the  clear  light  of  a  full  moon  he  was 
directed  to  a  distant  lamp  which  indicated  the  location 
of  the  principal  hotel.  Following  this  clue,  he  found, 
on  the  other  side  of  two  liquor  saloon  tents,  the  en- 
trance to  a  large  one  and  a  half  story  house  constructed 
of  unplaned  boards.  As  he  entered  the  office,  in  wliich 
were  grouped  all  the  attractions  of  the  bar  and  billiard 
saloon,  the  proprietor  bade  him  good-morning  and  with 
a  winning  smile  called  out  "Come,  Captain,  and  have  a 
regular  dodger  to  scrape  the  clam  out  of  the  roof  of  your 
mouth."  Declining  this  invitation  with  thanks,  he 
asked  for  a  bed  and  was  shown  into  a  small  room  in  the 
loft.  The  door  had  no  lock  and  the  partition,  originally 
made  of  unseasoned  lumber,  had  shrunken  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  a  hand  could  be  inserted  between  the  boards.  A 
hole  in  the  wall,  without  sash  or  glass,  was  the  only 
window.  A  slight  examination  of  the  bed  revealed  the 
swarming  vermin  which  lurked  underneath  its  covering. 


114  SHELDON  JACKSON 

As  there  were  no  chairs  in  the  room,  the  only  choice  was 
between  the  bed  and  the  dirty  floor.  After  buttoning  up 
his  overcoat  and  tying  a  handkerchief  closely  about  his 
neck,  the  weary  traveller  vainly  sought  sleep  on  the  top 
of  the  bed.  It  was  the  middle  of  July,  but  the  night 
was  cold  and  the  coming  of  the  morning  was  anxiously 
awaited.  At  early  dawn  he  went  down  into  the  office, 
where  three  men  were  taking  their  morning  dram.  A 
half-hour  later,  he  found  one  of  the  men  on  the  ground 
outside,  stiffening  in  death.  In  a  drunken  row  which 
quickly  followed  the  friendly  interchange  of  greetings 
and  health-drinkings  he  was  stabbed  with  a  knife  by 
one  of  his  comrades.  This  was  not  an  unusual  occur- 
rence in  that  place  where  the  first  seven  graves  in  the 
cemetery  were  filled  by  men  who  met  a  bloody  and 
violent  death. 

The  route  from  Bryan  to  the  Sweetwater  Mines  ran 
for  much  of  the  way  along  the  old  overland  trail,  be- 
tween the  Missouri  River  and  Sacramento.  The  Bannock 
Indians  who  roved  over  this  territory  were  incorrigibly 
hostile,  and  on  several  occasions  during  the  sixties  at- 
tacked the  stage-coaches.  To  guard  as  far  as  possible 
against  the  perils  of  this  wilderness  road,  the  company 
had  constructed  stockade  forts  at  intervals  of  ten  or  twelve 
miles  ;  and,  when  the  Indians  were  known  to  be  on  the 
war-path,  arms  were  provided  for  the  defense  of  the  pas- 
sengers. Between  these  fortified  relay  stations  the  mule 
or  mustang  teams,  six  to  each  coach,  were  driven  at  full 
speed.  As  they  approached  the  stockade,  the  double 
gates  were  swung  open  and  as  soon  as  they  were  inside 
they  were  closed  behind  them.  Here  in  seclusion  and 
safety  the  necessary  changes  were  made  for  the  next  run. 

When  Mr.  Jackson  made  application  in  the  early  morn- 
ing for  passage  over  this  route  he  was  apprised  of  the 
danger  of  attack  from  hostile  bands,  which  were  known 


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THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      115 

to  be  hovering  about  along  the  line  of  the  road,  and  was 
given  a  loaded  rifle  to  be  used  in  defense  of  his  life,  in 
case  of  need.  A  fellow  passenger,  bound  for  the  same 
destination,  was  provided  with  a  similar  outfit. 

Through  the  long  midsummer  day,  as  the  mule-team 
raced  from  station  to  station,  the  occupants  of  the  coach 
were  on  the  alert  with  weapons  on  their  knees  or  close  at 
hand  in  anticipation  of  a  surprise ;  but  happily  for  all 
concerned  no  attack  was  made,  and  soon  after  nightfall 
the  end  of  the  journey  was  reached  in  safety. 

South  Pass  at  this  time  had  a  population  of  1, 700  souls, 
but  its  lodging-places  were  crowded  with  adventurers,  and 
the  weary  missionary  was  glad  to  accept  of  accommoda- 
tions in  an  untidy  room,  twelve  feet  square,  in  which 
were  three  double  beds.  The  basin  of  a  mountain  stream 
in  rear  of  the  hotel  furnished  the  only  available  place  for 
his  morning  abUitions.  The  cluirge  for  accommodations 
of  this  character  was  four  dollars  per  day. 

In  the  morning,  a  notice  was  posted  announcing  a 
preaching  service — and,  at  a  later  hour,  a  boy  was  sent 
out  with  a  bell,  who  rang  the  changes  also  on  the  brief 
sentence — "There  will  be  preaching  this  evening  in  Mor- 
mon Gulch."  The  service  was  held  in  a  large  warehouse, 
tendered  and  cleaned  up  for  the  purpose  by  one  of  the 
citizens.  Soon  after  this  meeting-place  was  secured,  a 
man  came  across  the  way  and  offered  his  dance-hall,  a 
large  canvas  tent— 25x50  feet — and  seemed  quite  disap- 
pointed when  he  learned  that  his  offer  came  too  late. 
Before  he  left  this  community,  Mr.  Jackson  was  requested 
to  visit  a  dying  miner.  He  found  the  man  in  a  log  hut — 
8  X 12  feet — without  floor  or  window.  On  his  face  was  the 
stamp  of  approaching  death,  and  yet  he  was  reading  a 
low  novel.  For  this  apparent  incongruity  he  apologized, 
saying  that  he  could  not  obtain  any  better  reading.  The 
man,   who  was  still  youthful  in  appearance,  had  been 


116  SHELDON  JACKSON 

brought  up  in  a  home  of  wealth  and  refinement  and  was 
a  graduate  of  a  well-known  Eastern  college.  To  this 
dying  stranger  in  ' '  the  far  country, ' '  without  comforts  or 
tender  care,  the  old  story  of  God's  love  and  grace  was 
told  and  the  missionary  went  his  way. 

Corinne,  Utah,  was  reached  on  Friday,  July  23d,  and, 
on  the  following  Tuesday,  Mr.  Jackson  took  the  stage- 
coach for  Helena,  Montana,  five  hundred  miles  distant. 
The  first  day's  experience  was  "hot,  dusty,  and  unpleas- 
ant." On  the  evening  of  the  fourth  day  of  continuous 
staging,  the  terminus  of  this  northward  journey  was 
reached ;  and  the  weary,  dust-covered  traveller  had  an 
unbroken  night  of  rest.  The  next  day,  Saturday,  he 
made  more  than  a  hundred  calls  in  Helena  and  secured 
the  names  of  those  who  were  favourable  to  the  assembling 
of  a  congregation  on  the  following  Sabbath,  and,  if  the 
way  should  be  clear,  to  the  organization  of  a  church. 
His  record  of  that  day's  work  gives  the  following  enumer- 
ation of  professing  Christians  :— Presbyterians,  twenty  ; 
Methodists,  twenty  ;  Congregationalists,  three ;  Disciples, 
six ;  Episcopalians,  fifteen ;  Baptists,  seven ;  Eoman 
Catholics,  five ;  Unitarians,  one ;  Universalists,  two ; 
Friends,  two. 

The  thoroughness  of  this  house  to  house  visitation  is 
specially  notable,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  was  the  day 
following  a  continuous  ride  of  four  days  and  nights  in  a 
rough  mountain  coach. 

On  the  Sabbath,  two  services  were  held  in  Helena,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  first  a  Presbyterian  church  of  twelve 
members  was  organized.  At  this  time,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  mission  organizations  among  the  Indians, 
this  was  the  only  Presbyterian  church  within  a  radius  of 
one  thousand  miles.  Eeturniug  by  the  same  route, 
Corinne  was  reached  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday,  August 
6th.     On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  this  energetic  her- 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      117 

aid  of  good  tidings  amoug  the  mouutains  preached  to  a 
little  cougregation  at  Coriune  and  secured  their  coopera- 
tion in  an  attempt  to  support  Mr.  Hughes  in  the  admin- 
istration of  regular  services.  On  the  return  journey  over 
the  Union  Pacific,  several  stops  were  made  to  confer  with 
missionaries  whom  he  had  sent  out,  or  to  organize  churches 
which  they  had  gathered  in  the  rapidly- growing  towns 
within  their  appointed  spheres  of  labour.  At  each  place 
one  or  more  services  were  held,  lots  were  selected  or  se- 
cured for  church  buildings,  and  all  the  available  forces 
of  tlie  community  were  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  new 
organization.  At  Eawlins,  a  pledge  was  given,  through 
an  interested  friend,  for  $1,000  towards  the  erection  of  a 
house  of  worship,  and  a  committee  was  aiDpointed  to  se- 
cure additional  funds  and  arrange  for  the  building  of  the 
house,  at  as  early  a  date  as  possible.  This  church,  being 
the  first  to  occupy  the  ground,  absorbed  for  a  time  the 
Christian  element  of  the  whole  community. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Columbus,  where  a  church 
was  organized  on  the  return  journej^,  although  usually 
classed  with  towns  of  the  "Far  West,"  is  in  reality  the 
half-way  town  between  Boston  and  San  Francisco.  This 
mid-continental  town,  according  to  the  prediction  of 
George  Francis  Train,  is  one  day  to  be  the  capital  of  the 
United  States.  If  centrality  of  location  were  the  only 
thing  to  be  considered,  this  prosperous  little  city  of  the 
plains  has  an  incontestable  claim  to  that  honour.' 

At  Grand  Island,  a  swarm  of  mosquitoes  interfered  with 
the  regular  order  of  service,  and  well-nigh  baffled  the  at- 
tempt to  organize  a  church.     The  meeting  for  this  pur- 

'  The  exact  centre  of  the  United  States  is  said  to  be  in  Cloud 
County,  Kansas — fifty  miles  south  of  the  southern  border  of  Nebraska, 
and  not  far  from  the  great  southern  l)end  of  the  Republican  Fork. 
"This  means  that  the  Mississippi  River  at  St.  Louis  is  nearly  500  miles 
east  of  the  centre  of  the  country. ' ' 


118  SHELDON  JACKSON 

pose,  as  previously  announced,  was  lield  in  a  school- 
house.  To  guard  against  the  interference  of  these  pests 
of  the  lowlands, — which  for  a  time  disjDuted,  with  fair 
show  of  success,  the  claims  of  the  early  settlers  to  the  pos- 
session and  occupancy  of  the  land — a  man  was  sent  an 
hour  before  the  time  of  assembly  to  build  a  smudge  before 
the  door.  He  did  his  work  well,  but,  despite  the  smoke, 
the  mosquitoes  gathered  in  such  numbers  that  it  "was 
not  deemed  expedient  to  preach."  The  assembly  re- 
mained long  enough,  as  the  record  assures  us,  to  organize 
a  church  and  elect  two  good  elders,  after  which  the  con- 
gregation beat  a  hasty  retreat.  The  little  church  planted 
hastily,  amid  an  environment  so  hostile  and  unpromising, 
was  nevertheless  a  success  from  the  beginning.  Presuma- 
bly it  stands  on  higher  ground  than  the  schoolhouse  in 
which  it  was  born  ;  or  perchance  the  law  of  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  has  worked  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  rapacious 
hordes  which  once  annoyed  its  worshippers.  In  any  case, 
it  has  grown  steadily  in  numbers  and  influence,  and  at  the 
present  time  rejDorts  an  enrollment  of  315  communicants. 

During  this  missionary  tour,  extending  from  July  15th 
to  August  17th,  Mr.  Jackson  travelled  2,300  miles  by  rail 
and  1,200  by  stage-coach,  and  at  every  stopping-place  he 
plunged  at  once  into  the  work  before  him,  regardless  of 
weariness  or  lack  of  sleep. 

As  a  specimen  of  efScient,  strenuous  labour  within  a 
marvellously  brief  space  of  time,  note  the  following  rec- 
ord of  the  organization  of  churches  : — 


August    I, 

1869, 

- 

Helena,           Montana. 

"         8, 

- 

Rawlins,          Wyoming 

"          lO, 

- 

Laramie,                " 

"          12, 

- 

Grand  Island,  Nebraska 

**       13' 

- 

Columbus,             " 

"       i5» 

• 

-       Blair,                      '' 

««       i6, 

- 

Fremont,                " 

THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      119 

The  above  with  the  church  at  Cheyenne  organized  on 
the  outward  journey,  make  a  total  of  eight  churches,  all 
of  which  survive  to  this  day. 

A  few  days  before  Mr.  Jackson's  return  from  this  mis- 
sionary tour  the  executive  committee  of  the  Board  of 
Domestic  Missions  reconsidered  its  former  action  and 
commissioned  him  as  district  missionary  for  Nebraska, 
Wyoming,  and  Colorado.  The  amount  of  salary  appro- 
priated was  $1,500,  but  no  provision  was  made  for  travel- 
ling expenses  in  the  prosecution  of  his  work  throughout 
this  vast  extent  of  territory. 

It  appears  from  subsequent  correspondence  that  it  was 
the  intention  of  the  Board  to  limit  the  field  strictly  to  the 
bounds  prescribed  in  the  commission  5  but  the  work  which 
had  been  already  commenced  in  Iowa,  Montana,  and 
Utah,  under  the  appointment  of  the  Iowa  presbyteries, 
could  not  be  abandoned  at  this  time  without  detriment  to 
the  cause  and  dereliction  of  interests  to  which  he  had 
pledged  his  cooperation  and  support.  Hence,  he  so  in- 
terpreted the  later  commission  as  to  include  all  the  out- 
goings westward  of  the  district  named.  As  he  himself 
puts  it: — "I  went  into  the  work  west  of  the  Missouri 
Eiver  in  the  spirit  of  the  appointment  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Missouri  River,  May  1,  18G9,  understanding  that  I  was 
to  look  after  all  the  destitute  fields  between  Iowa  and 
Nevada,  which  was  the  great  gap  between  the  Eastern 
cliurches  and  the  Pacific  coast  :  consequently,  in  1809,  be- 
fore the  Board  placed  Colorado  in  my  field,  I  was  already 
at  work  in  all  this  region." 

One  of  the  most  serious  problems  at  this  time,  in  con- 
nection with  the  oversight  of  the  field  to  which  he  was 
thus  committed,  arose  from  the  necessity  for  suitable 
houses  of  worship  in  each  of  the  growing  towns  where 
churches  had  been  established.  Tliis  urgent  need  could 
not  be  supplied  on  the  field  itself,  to  any  great  extent, 


120  SHELDON  JACKSON 

where  a  mere  handful  were  holding  the  ground  until  the 
coming  of  better  days  ;  nor  could  it  be  supplied  by  the 
Board  of  Church  Erection,  which  was  so  straitened  for 
lack  of  funds  that  its  ordinary  obligations  were  met  with 
difficulty.  In  this  emergency,  as  in  other  times  of  stress 
and  peril,  the  man  of  faith  comes  to  the  front  and  assumes 
responsibilities  from  which  under  other  circumstances  he 
would  gladly  have  been  relieved.  It  was  necessary  for 
the  success  of  the  work  that  a  special  appeal  should  be 
made  to  the  Church  at  large,  and,  without  hesitation, 
Sheldon  Jackson  voiced  that  appeal.  In  this,  he  seems 
to  have  been  cordially  supported  by  the  Church  Erection 
Board,  as  well  as  by  the  individual  members  of  the 
church  to  whom  he  made  his  personal  appeals.  More 
than  this  he  did,  however  ;  for  when  other  helpers  were 
not  available  he  assumed  personal  responsibilities  and 
signed  contracts  with  building  firms  to  avoid  delay  and 
insure  the  continuance  of  the  work.  In  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tain section  and  at  some  points  on  the  plains,  where 
building  material  was  very  exi)ensive,  he  met  the  diffi- 
culty by  contracting  with  a  Chicago  firm  which  furnished 
ready-made  buildings,  shipping  them  by  rail  to  their 
destination  and  putting  them  u^)  on  the  ground  to  be  oc- 
cupied, as  specified  in  contract  stipulations.  Eeferriug  to 
this  novel  expedient,  a  writer  in  the  Baptist  Standard  of 
that  date,  says  : — 


Our  Presbyterian  friends,  through  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jackson, 
agent  for  Church  Extension  in  the  Western  territories,  have 
contracted  with  Lyman  Bridges,  Esq.,  of  this  city  (Chicago) 
for  building  seven  or  more  churches  at  Cheyenne,  Fremont, 
Rawlins,  and  other  prominent  points  on  the  line  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad.  This  is  a  practical  occupation  of  this  great 
and  growing  field.  Cannot  our  Baptist  brethren  profit  by  this 
example  ? 


THE  IOWA  FORWARD  MOVEMENT      121 

Burdened  with  all  of  these  growing  responsibilities, 
Mr.  Jackson  went  to  St.  Louis,  at  that  time  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Board  of  Church  Erection,  to  urge  more 
liberal  appropriations  for  his  field.  During  the  month  of 
October,  he  appeared  in  the  synods  and  other  public  as- 
semblies in  the  Eastern  states,  to  plead  his  cause  in  person. 

On  the  return  journey,  he  availed  himself  of  the  op- 
portunity to  attend  the  adjourned  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly,  in  November,  at  Pittsburg,  and  marched  in 
the  procession  which  joined  hands  on  Wood  Street  with 
the  men  of  the  New  School  column,  '^amidst  welcomes, 
thanksgivings,  and  tears." 

At  this  assembly  he  was  instrumental  in  securing  the 
passage  of  au  ennabling  act  constituting  the  Presbytery 
of  Colorado  ;  and  also  the  addition  of  the  territories  of 
Utah  and  Montana  to  the  field  for  which  he  was  commis- 
sioned. 

In  this  commission,  Iowa  was  not  mentioned,  and  it  was 
the  Intention  of  the  Board  to  connect  it  with  another 
field,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  churches  organized 
in  Nebraska  and  beyond  were  still  under  the  care  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Missouri  River,  the  border  Presbytery  of 
Western  Iowa.  For  this  reason,  and  also  with  a  view  to 
supplying  the  pressing  necessities  of  this  section  until  a 
successor  should  be  on  tlie  ground,  Sheldon  Jackson  con- 
tinued to  give  a  portion  of  his  time  to  Western  Iowa 
until  the  date  of  his  removal  from  Council  Bluffs  to 
Denver.  The  last  church  organized  by  him  in  this  state 
was  on  the  30th  of  July,  1870,  just  before  his  departure 
for  his  new  home  on  the  Colorado  plains.  With  the  for- 
mation of  new  presbyteries  in  the  vast  stretches  of  terri- 
tory west  of  Iowa,  a  new  order  of  things  arose  and  the 
distinctively  pioneer  work  of  tlie  Church  passed  from  the 
Missouri  River  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. 


122  SHELDON  JACKSON 

The  initial  movement  which  contributed  so  much  to- 
wards the  extension  and  rapid  growth  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  this  region,  in  1870,  and  the  decade  following, 
was  limited  to  eight  months  of  the  year  1869,  and  about 
four  months  of  the  year  following. 

Within  this  brief  period,  twenty-three  churches  were 
organized,  of  which  those  on  the  remote  limits  were  more 
than  1,600  miles  apart.  During  this  memorable  year, 
the  superintendent  of  this  vast  field  travelled  over  29,000 
miles  in  the  prosecution  of  his  work,  placing  a  watchman 
on  every  high  place  of  prominence,  and  occupying,  with 
a  view  to  future  advance,  every  strategic  point  in  the  new 
centres  of  settlement  and  civilization.  In  that  year,  the 
blue  banner  of  Presbyterianism  was  planted  for  the  first 
time  in  the  territories  of  Wyoming,  Dakota,  Montana, 
and  Utah. 

Then,  too,  were  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Presbyteries 
of  Kearney,  Wyoming,  Utah,  and  Colorado ;  and,  also, 
of  the  Synods  of  Nebraska  and  Colorado  ;  each  of  which 
covered  an  empire  of  magnificent  proportions. 

From  whatever  standj)oint  we  view  it,  this  was  one  of 
the  grandest  missionary  movements  of  modern  times.  It 
opened  up  to  the  privileges  of  the  Gospel  seven  states  and 
three  territories,  placing  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
forefront  of  every  one  of  them,  and  gave  into  our  hands 
that  splendid  and  ever-growing  domain — already  a  mighty 
influence  for  good  on  this  continent — now  covered  by  five 
synods,  twenty-seven  presbyteries,  579  churches,  with  an 
enrollment  of  68, 650  communicants  !  ' '  Into  these  churches 
since  1869  have  been  received  100,601  members  on  con- 
fession of  their  faith.  And  by  these  churches  since  1869 
has  been  contributed  for  missionary  and  religious  pur- 
poses the  sum  of  $15,323,292 !  " 


VII 

THE   BEGINNINGS  OF  A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD 

"Our  parish  is  a  mighty  nation,  spreading  from  sea  to  sea.  No 
thought  yet  encompasses  it.  No  man  who  cannot  see  over  the  sum- 
mita  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  out  on  the  clear  Pacific  understands 
the  future  of  this  nation  and  can  provide  for  it." — Dr.  C.  L.  Goodell. 

THE  pioueer  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  Eocky  Mountain  territories  was  the  Rev. 
Lewis  Hamilton,  of  the  Presbytery  of  St,  Joseph, 
New  School.  He  crossed  the  plains  with  the  advance 
guard  of  the  gold-seekers  and  adventurers  in  the  spring 
of  1859,  and  on  the  day  after  his  arrival  in  Denver  he  ad- 
dressed a  congregation  of  attentive  hearers  in  an  unfin- 
ished building  which  had  been  temporarily  fitted  up  by 
its  owner  for  the  occasion.  At  the  suggestion  of  Horace 
Greeley,  who  was  then  making  a  tour  of  exploration 
through  that  portion  of  the  ''New  West,"  Mr.  Hamilton 
followed  the  crowds  who  were  going  up  into  the  moun- 
tains and  preached  as  he  had  opportunity  in  the  several 
towns  and  camps  of  the  mining  regions.  Meanwhile, 
other  ministers  of  the  Gospel  arrived  from  the  East  and 
laboured  in  some  sections  for  short  periods,  but  owing  to 
the  unsettled  condition  of  the  country  no  attempt  was 
made  at  that  time  to  establish  permanent  churches. 

The  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Denver  was  organised 
with  eleven  members  under  the  ministrations  of  the  Rev. 
H.  S.  Billingsly  (O.  S.),  on  the  16th  of  December,  1861. 
This  was  the  first  organization,  on  home  mission  ground, 
within  the  limits  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  territories.     It 

123 


124  SHELDON  JACKSON 

was  taken  under  the  care  of  the  Presbytery  of  Missouri 
Eiver,  and  was  subsequently  transferred  to  the  Presbytery 
of  Highlands,  in  Kansas.  At  a  later  date,  November  18, 
1868,  a  dissatisfied  element  of  the  congregation  resolved  to 
place  itself  under  the  care  of  the  New  School  branch  of  the 
Church,  and  on  the  10th  of  August,  1869,  those  who  rep- 
resented this  element,  apparently  a  majority  of  the 
Church,  were  received  into  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago, 
taking  the  name  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Denver,  New  School.  The  former  organization,  although 
greatly  embarrassed  by  this  action,  maintained  its  ex- 
istence, and  its  pulxDit  was  supplied  by  the  Eev.  C.  M. 
Campbell,  under  commission  of  the  Board  of  Domestic 
Missions.  When  the  Presbytery  of  Colorado  was  or- 
gauized  it  was  enrolled  under  its  original  title ;  and,  by 
request  of  the  congregation,  the  name  was  changed  to 
Westminster. ' 

The  New  School  organization  secured  the  pastoral 
services  of  the  Eev.  E.  P.  Wells,  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Chicago,  and  was  transferred  to  the  Presbytery  of  Colo- 
rado, on  the  16th  of  August,  1870. 

Three  or  four  additional  churches  were  organized  in  the 
mountains,  or  alongside  the  foothills  in  Colorado,  during 
the  sixties,  but  all  of  them  were  feeble,  dej)endent  upon 
transient  supplies,  and  practically  without  presbyterial 
oversight  or  care. 

When  the  union  between  the  Old  and  New  School 
branches  was  consummated  at  Pittsburg,  November,  1869, 
there  were  but  five  churches  existent,  of  the  Presbyterian 
type,  within  the  limits  of  the  territory.     Ten  years  had 

'  Through  the  energetic  and  indefatigable  labours  of  the  Rev.  W.  Y. 
Brown,  who  took  charge  of  this  organization  under  commission  of  the 
Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  in  July,  1870,  its  growth  was  rapid,  and 
in  1872  the  congregation  completed  and  occupied  a  new  house  of  wor- 
ship in  a  central  part  of  the  city. 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  125 

passed  away  since  Father  Hamilton  had  voiced  the 
cry  of  the  Messenger  of  old,  in  this  western  wilderness  : — 
"Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord'' —  and  yet  the  work 
of  evangelizing  the  tens  of  thousands  who  had  come  to 
live  and  labour  in  this  mountain  section  of  the  land,  so 
far  as  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  concerned,  was  de- 
plorably limited  in  its  reach  and  pitifully  meagre  in  its 
results.  Where  they  could  do  no  more,  the  missionaries, 
who,  amid  many  discouragements,  manned  these  outposts, 
held  the  ground  in  anticipation  of  the  coming  of  a  better 
day.  The  merging  of  the  forces  and  influences  of  the  re- 
united Church  happily  synchronized  with  the  opening  of 
the  new  decade  and  contributed  largely  to  the  speedy  in- 
bringing  Of  that  day.  By  appointment  of  the  General 
Assembly,  the  year  1870  was  set  apart  as  a  Memorial 
Year,  and  long  before  its  close  there  were  substantial  evi- 
dences of  awakening  interest  and  enlarging  liberality  in 
every  dej)artment  of  mission  work. 

To  Sheldon  Jackson,  who  was  eagerly  noting  the  signs 
of  the  times,  this  was  the  golden  hour  of  opportunity,  and 
he  utilized  it  by  bringing  every  influence  he  could  exert 
to  bear  upon  the  work  which  confronted  him  in  the  vast 
stretch  of  mission  territory  committed  to  his  care.  In 
anticipation  of  this  hour,  he  had  secured  from  the  Old 
School  Assembly,  a  few  hours  before  its  dissolution,  the 
necessary  legislation  for  the  erection  of  a  presbytery, 
which  should  include  all  the  churches  already  organized 
in  the  Eocky  Mountain  territory  north  of  New  Mexico, 
to  be  known  as  the  Presbytery  of  Colorado.  As  soon, 
thereafter,  as  it  was  practicable,  he  made  arrangements, 
in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  Enabling  Act, 
for  convening  and  constituting  it  at  Denver. 

In  the  month  of  February,  1870,  he  entered  the  terri- 
tory of  Colorado  for  the  first  time.  At  that  date,  there 
were  no  railroad  connections  with  Denver,  and  the  trip 


126  SHELDON  JACKSON 

from  Cheyenne, — an  all  niglit  ride — was  made  by  stage- 
coach. On  the  18th  of  February,  the  evening  of  the  day 
of  his  arrival,  he  convened  the  presbytery  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  Baptist  church  and  preached  the  opening  ser- 
mon. The  ministers  who  responded  to  the  roll-call,  under 
the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  the  Assembly,  were  A.  E. 
Day,  C.  M.  Campbell,  Sheldon  Jackson,  H.  P.  Peck,  and 
William  Kephart.  The  Eev.  Lewis  Hamilton  was  re- 
ceived by  letter  from  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Joseph  (N.  S.) 
and  was  given  the  place  of  honour  as  the  first  moderator. 
One  of  the  veteran  missionaries  who  responded  to  this 
roll-call  had  spent  thirty-two  days  in  crossing  the  Plains 
with  his  family  ;  another  had  driven  a  team  of  six  mules 
in  an  emigrant  train  over  the  same  route  when  hostile 
Indians  disiDuted  their  passage  and  sought  opportunities 
day  after  day  to  harass  or  cut  off  some  of  the  j)arty  in  ex- 
posed situations  by  the  way.  To  attend  this  meeting, 
one  of  the  missionaries  had  travelled  107  miles  by  stage- 
coach, and  another,  the  convener,  had  journeyed  more 
than  600  miles.  Four  of  the  Eocky  Mountain  territor- 
ies, Colorado,  Wyoming,  Utah,  and  Montana — were  in- 
cluded in  the  limits  of  this  presbytery  at  the  date  of  its 
organization. 

The  churches  enrolled  were  Denver  first  (O.  S.),  Black 
Hawk,  Boulder  Valley,  Upper  St.  Vrain,  Cheyenne, 
Laramie,  Eawlins,  and  Helena.  One-half  of  this  number 
had  been  recently  organized  by  Sheldon  Jackson  in  the 
territories  north  of  Colorado,  and  the  remainder,  as 
already  noted,  belonged  within  the  limits  of  that  territory. 
The  Kew  School  Church  of  Denver  was  not  included  in 
this  enrollment,  but  at  a  subsequent  meeting,  in  August 
of  the  same  year,  it  was  received  by  letter  from  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Chicago.  The  immense  extent  of  territory 
covered  by  this  presbytery  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  two   of  its  churches,  Denver  and  Helena,  were  a 


Pioneer  Missionaries  in  Colorado, 
(For  iiaiiu's  sec  Appendix,  page  480.     Group  j.) 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  127 

Ihousaud  miles  apart.  The  only  available  mode  of  trans- 
porUtion  for  six  hundred  miles  of  that  distance  was  by 
stag-e-coach,  over  exceptionally  rugged  roads. 

Tiie  meeting  of  this  little  band  of  presbyters  afforded 
the  first  opportunity  for  concerted  action,  and,  after  its 
routine  business  had  been  transacted,  the  body  resolved 
itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  to  devise  ways  and 
means  for  supplying  the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  field 
committed  to  their  charge.  With  a  view  to  more  efificieut 
oversight  and  care,  the  General  Assembly  was  requested 
to  limit  the  field  to  Colorado,  by  placing  the  ministers 
and  churches  of  the  territories  of  Wyoming,  Montana, 
and  Utah  in  a  separate  presbytery.  This  action  was 
taken  in  1871,  but,  meanwhile,  by  direction  of  the  As- 
sembly of  1870,  tlie  churches  of  Wyoming  remained  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Synod  of  Southern  Iowa,  while 
those  in  Colorado  were  assigned  to  the  care  of  the  Synod 
of  Kansas.  Provision  was  made  at  the  same  time  for 
Utah  Territory,  by  placing  it  under  the  care  of  the  Synod 
of  the  Pacific  ;  Montana  was  overlooked,  and  for  a  whole 
year  had  no  ecclesiastical  connection,  except  with  the 
Presbytery  of  Colorado.  Thus  it  appears  that  the 
churches  of  this  pioneer  presbytery  of  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tains, during  the  first  year  of  its  existence,  were  distrib- 
uted among  three  widely -separated  synods,  reaching 
from  the  borders  of  Iowa  and  Missouri  to  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  General  Assembly  of  1871  put  au 
end  to  this  anomalous  condition  of  ecclesiastical  super- 
Aision  by  creating  the  Synod  of  Colorado,  which  included 
all  the  churches  of  Montana,  Utah,  Wyoming,  Colorado, 
and  New  Mexico.  In  the  last  named  teiritory,  a  presby- 
tery had  been  organized  as  early  as  June  2,  1868.  It 
was  constituted  with  barely  a  quorum  of  ministers  and 
one  ruling  elder.  One  of  its  ministers  was  a  home  mis- 
sionary J  another  was  labouring  among  the  Navajo  In- 


128  SHELDON  JACKSON 

diaus  under  commissiou  of  the  Foreign  Board,  and  the 
third  was  a  chaplain  in  the  United  States  Army  at  Fort 
Craig.  This  ecclesiastical  body,  small  as  it  was,  com- 
prised all  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  within  the  territory 
of  New  Mexico,  at  that  date,  except  one  or  two  belonging 
to  the  Episcopal  Church,  who  were  serving  as  chaplains 
in  the  United  States  Army.  The  church  at  Sante  Fe, 
which  the  ruling  elder  represented  in  this  body,  was 
then  the  only  organized  Protestant  church  in  the  territory. 
A  few  months  later,  when  the  Synod  of  Colorado  was 
constituted,  it  reported  five  ministers  and  two  churches. 

The  Presbytery  of  Wyoming  was  constituted  at  Chey- 
enne on  the  13th  of  June,  1871,  with  five  ministers  and 
all  the  churches  organized  up  to  that  date  in  the  territor- 
ies of  Montana,  Utah,  and  "Wyoming. 

The  Enabling  Act,  which  placed  the  above  named  pres- 
byteries under  one  ecclesiastical  organization  was  as 
follows : — 

^'■Resolved, — That  the  Synod  of  Colorado  is  hereby  con- 
stituted, to  consist  of  the  ministers  and  churches  in  the 
Presbyteries  of  Colorado,  Santa  Fe,  and  Wyoming :  and 
that  said  synod  meet  at  Pueblo,  Colorado,  on  the  4th  day 
of  September,  1871,  at  11  o'clock,  A.  m.,  and  be  opened 
with  a  sermon  by  the  Eev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  or,  in  his 
absence,  by  the  oldest  minister  present,  who  shall  preside 
until  a  moderator  be  elected." 

The  synod  met  in  accordance  with  this  action,  and  was 
opened  with  a  sermon,  but  for  lack  of  a  quorum  adjourned 
to  meet  at  the  call  of  the  moderator.  This  call  was  not 
issued  until  the  autumn  of  the  next  year — 1872 — when  a 
meeting  was  arranged  for  the  8th  of  September  in  the 
church  of  Colorado  Springs.  At  this  time  and  place,  a 
quorum  was  present.  Lewis  Hamilton,  the  pioneer  min- 
ister of  Colorado,  was  elected  moderator,  and  Sheldon 
Jackson  was  made  the  stated  clerk.     Then  for  the  first 


A  GEEAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  129 

time  in  its  liistory  the  synod  took  up  the  regular  business 
for  which  it  was  constituted.  At  this  session,  the  follow- 
ing recommendation  was  unanimously  aj)proved  : — 

^^  Besolved, — That  in  the  opinion  of  this  synod  there  is 
a  great  and  increasing  necessity  for  the  constant  and  la- 
borious services  of  a  synodical  superintendent  of  missions, 
within  our  bounds,  and  that  we  do  most  cordially  bear 
our  united  testimony  to  the  untiring  zeal,  faithfulness, 
and  efficiency  of  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  our  present 
synodical  missionary,  and  to  his  eminent  fitness  for  this 
department  of  church  work  ;  and  we  respectfully  petition 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  to  recommission  him  for 
another  year." 

For  more  than  two  years  prior  to  this  official  endorse- 
ment, Mr.  Jackson  had  been  at  work  in  every  portion  of 
this  vast  outlying  territory,  under  direction  and  com- 
mission of  the  Home  Board.  Three  years  later,  by  en- 
actment of  the  General  Assembly,  Arizona  was  added  to 
the  Synod  of  Colorado.  As  thus  constituted  and  en- 
larged, this  ecclesiastical  body  covered  six  of  the  great 
territories  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  section.  It  has  usually 
been  classified  with  the  synods  of  the  ''Far  West,"  but 
in  reality  it  -svas  located  in  the  eastern  ijortion  of  the  great 
West.  Its  border  line  eastward  was  less  than  three  hun- 
dred miles  west  of  the  longitude  of  Columbus,  the  central 
station  on  the  line  of  the  transcontinental  railroad.  This 
midland  synod  separated  the  eastern  portion  of  the 
Church  from  the  western — the  Atlantic  slope  and  Missis- 
sippi Valley  from  the  rugged  mountains  and  sunny  plains 
of  the  Pacific  slope.  Through  it  ran  the  great  backbone 
ridge  of  the  continent, — the  mineral  ridge  of  the  United 
States, — with  its  priceless  stores  of  silver  and  gold,  and 
its  new  cities  and  mining  camps  springing  up  like  magic 
in  many  places  that  hitherto  had  been  regarded  as  inac- 
cessible and  unfit  for  human  abode. 


130  SHELDON  JACKSON  • 

Its  most  noteworthy  feature,  however,  was  the  immeii« 
sity  of  its  reach,  especially  from  north  to  south.  In  this 
direction,  it  extended  from  the  Canadian  boundary  to  the 
borders  of  Mexico,  a  distance  of  more  than  twelve  hun- 
dred miles.  In  width,  this  mountain  district  averaged 
about  three  hundred  and  seventy  miles.  Its  aggregate 
area  was  670,393  square  miles,  an  area  almost  equal  to 
one-fifth  of  the  entire  surface  of  the  United  States,  ex- 
clusive of  Alaska. 

Stating  it  in  another  form,  this  princely  domain  was  as 
large  as  the  combined  empires  of  Great  Britain,  Germany, 
France,  and  Italy,— not  including  their  colonial  posses- 
sions. 

It  covered  a  field  ten  times  larger  than  all  of  the  New 
England  States  ;  a  province  larger  than  all  the  country 
between  the  Missouri  Eiver  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  from 
the  Lakes  to  the  Ohio  Eiver ;— an  area  as  large  as  the 
space  covered  by  twenty -seven  synods  in  the  East ! 

In  the  spring  of  1872,  the  General  Assembly  created 
the  Presbytery  of  Montana  and  assigned  to  it  that  por- 
tion of  the  Presbytery  of  Wyoming  which  was  included 
in  the  territories  of  Montana  and  Utah.  At  the  meeting 
of  the  synod  in  1874  the  Presbytery  of  Wyoming  was  di- 
vided. The  portion  of  it  east  of  the  main  ridge,  including 
the  churches  of  Eawlins,  Laramie,  and  Cheyenne,  was 
transferred  to  the  Presbytery  of  Colorado.  The  western 
portion  was  joined  to  the  territory  of  Utah,  and  the  name 
was  changed  to  the  Presbytery  of  Utah.  From  this  date 
until  the  end  of  the  decade,  the  synod  consisted  of  four 
presbyteries,  m^.  .-—Colorado,  Utah,  Montana,'  and 
Santa  Fe.  In  order  to  secure  a  quorum  for  the  meetings 
of  synod,  during  this  period,  which  were  usually  held  in 
or  near  Denver,  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  representative 
from  Montana  on  the  north  or  from  Santa  Fe  on  the 
south.     If  he  came  from  the  north,  he  was  obliged  to 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  131 

travel,  on  the  round  trip,  800  miles  by  stage-coach  aud 
1,300  by  rail  ;  if  from  the  more  remote  stations  of  the 
south,  the  journey  back  and  forth  involved  1,600  miles 
of  staging  and  over  200  by  rail.  In  either  case,  the  aver- 
age expense  for  the  journey  was  about  il25.  The  longest 
of  these  direct  journeys  is  but  150  miles  less  than  the 
distance  from  Chicago  to  Denver,  and  yet  it  would  have 
been  easier  and  not  much  more  exiDcnsive  at  that  time  to 
have  travelled  all  the  way  from  the  city  of  New  York  to 
attend  one  of  the  meetings  of  this  synod.  For  this 
reason,  there  were  but  three  business  meetings  during  the 
period  of  the  seventies,  viz. :  in  1872,  1874,  and  1878. 

This  synod  was  as  notable  for  its  altitude  as  for  its 
great  extent.  The  places  in  which  its  churches  were  lo- 
cated were  elevated  from  5,000  to  10,000  feet  above  the 
sea.  Several  of  its  churches  had  an  average  elevation  of 
8,000  feet,  or  the  equivalent  of  about  one  and  a  half  miles 
skyward.  The  average  elevation  of  the  first  group  of 
twenty-five  churches,  which  were  organized  within  its 
limits,  was  6,146  feet.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for 
those  who  sought  for  the  wandering  sheep  of  Christ's  fold 
in  this  "hill  country  "  to  be  lost  in  the  clouds,  or  to  labour 
for  hours  in  the  suows  of  mountain  passes  in  the  attempt 
to  fill  an  appointment :  or  to  meet  with  their  brethren  of 
the  same  presbytery  in  the  foothills  or  on  the  suiinj'^ 
plains,  who  were  enjoying  the  comforts  of  the  land  in  the 
fullness  of  its  spring-time. 

The  population  of  this  synodical  province,  which 
throughout  its  vast  extent  was  home  mission  ground,  was 
singularly  diverse  aud  incongruous  in  its  elements  and 
beliefs.  The  multitudes  which  had  entered  it  from  the 
year  that  gold  had  been  discovered  within  its  borders 
were  made  u])  of  adventurers  and  home  seekers  fi'om 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  Alongside  of  the  best  rei)re- 
sentatives  of  Christian  culture  and  civilization  were  the 


132  SHELDON  JACKSON 

lawless  and  debased,  the  unfortunates  and  degenerates  of 
human  society,  who  are  always  found  in  force  in  the  new 
settlements  on  the  frontier.  Here,  in  close  contact  with 
the  best  and  worst  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  were  Indi- 
ans and  Half-breeds,  Mexicans  and  Mormons,  Chinese 
and  Japanese,  whose  lives  and  habits  and  influences  were 
at  variance  with  the  underlying  influences  and  principles 
which  from  the  beginning  of  its  history  have  made  our 
land  stable  and  strong.  In  one  of  its  largest  and  most 
prosperous  sections,  Mormonism,  with  its  corrupting  in- 
fluences, was  strongly  entrenched  and  deflantly  outspoken 
and  aggressive.  In  other  sections,  there  were  groups  of 
Indian  settlements,  which  in  the  aggregate  amounted  to 
one-third  of  the  Indian  population  of  the  country  ;  while 
in  the  South  there  were  not  less  than  130,000  natives  of 
Mexican  and  Spanish  descent,  deplorably  ignorant  and 
superstitious,  who  could  only  be  reached  effectively 
through  the  combined  influence  of  the  Christian  school 
and  Church. 

To  this  field  of  labour,  so  vast  in  extent,  so  rich  in 
natural  resources,  so  important  in  view  of  its  prospective 
growth,  and  so  diverse  and  incongruous  in  the  elements 
which  made  up  its  native  and  emigrant  population, — 
Sheldon  Jackson  gave  more  than  a  decade  of  the  busiest 
and  most  fruitful  years  of  his  strenuous  life. 

With  unfaltering  courage  and  ready  tact,  he  met  the 
difficulties  and  overcame  the  obstacles  which  confronted 
him  on  every  hand.  With  apostolic  fervour  and  zeal  he 
explored  the  "regions  beyond"  as  the  advance  agent  of 
the  Church,  preaching  the  Gospel  to  little  groups  who 
had  pushed  out  beyond  its  privileges ;  and,  where  the 
way  seemed  to  open  up,  establishing  churches  and 
schools,  which,  with  few  exceptions,  became  permanent 
centres  of  spiritual  life  and  wholesome  influence. 

While  intensely  loyal  to  the  Church  which  commis- 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  133 

sioned  liim  to  do  this  work,  he  gladly  lent  a  helping  hand 
to  every  agency  which  had  for  its  object  the  extension  of 
Christ's  kingdom  throughout  this  vast  domain,  and  was 
deeply  interested,  also,  in  everything  that  related  to  the 
development  of  its  natural  resources  and  possibilities. 

Eeferring  to  this  period  of  his  life  and  activity,  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Duncan  J.  McMillan,  the  well-known  ex-secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  writes : — 

Dr.  Jackson  was  the  great  leader  in  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
not  only  in  church  matters,  but  also  in  material  interests.  In 
those  early  days,  with  pen  and  tongue  he  did  more  than  any 
other  man  to  make  known  to  the  world  the  resources  and  pos- 
sibilities of  that  region.  Gifted  with  a  seer's  vision,  the  possi- 
bilities of  our  great  West  were  as  real  to  him  at  the  begin- 
ning of  its  development  a  generation  ago  as  the  accomplished 
facts  are  to  every  intelligent  citizen  to-day.  He  wrought  for 
the  future  as  if  it  were  present,  hence  he  was  misunderstood 
and  often  censured  by  men  who  could  not  see  afar  off. 

For  the  reason  given  by  Dr.  McMillan,  Sheldon  Jack- 
son was  favoured,  as  few  men  outside  of  political  circles 
or  railroad  connections  have  ever  been,  with  free  trans- 
portation  and  reduced  rates.  Eegardiug  him  as  a  valu- 
able helper  in  the  civilization  and  development  of  the 
regions  in  which  their  own  interests  were  centred,  the 
ofificials  of  these  companies  readily  responded  to  his  ap- 
plications for  transportation  over  long  distances,  for  him- 
self, or  for  reduced  fare  for  the  missionaries  whom  he  sent 
out  to  the  unoccupied  fields.  In  this  matter  he  was 
greatly  assisted  by  the  Eev.  John  L.  French,  who  had 
many  friends  among  the  proprietors  of  the  stage  lines. 
These  favours  were  freely  given  on  railroads  and  stage 
lines  among  the  mountains  where  the  fare  usually  ranged 
from  ten  to  twenty-five  cents  per  mile.  As  a  result  of 
this  friendly  cooperation,  thousands  of  dollara  were  saved 
to  the  treasury  of  the  Home  Board  every  year. 


134  SHELDON  JACKSON 

With  scarcely  an  exception,  all  the  rail  and  stage  lines 
in  the  West,  such  as  the  "  Overland  Mail,"  the  "  Gilmer, 
Salisbury  &  Co.,"  the  "Southern  Pacific"  mail  line — 
then  the  longest  stage  line  in  the  United  States — the 
Colorado  Stage  Co.,  and  perhax)s  a  score  or  more  of  other 
lines  liberally  furnished  these  facilities  year  by  year  for 
reaching  the  missionary  outposts. 

The  most  notable  of  all  the  long-distance  transportation 
cards  which  Dr.  Jackson  has  preserved  is  an  annual  for 
the  year  1880,  issued  by  the  Gilmer,  Salisbury  &  Co. 
Stage  Line,  which  w^as  good  for  free  passage  over  all  the 
lines  of  this  company  in  Utah,  Nevada,  California, 
Colorado,  Texas,  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Oregon,  Idaho, 
Montana,  Dakota,  Washington  Territory,  Wyoming,  and 
Nebraska. 

This  interesting  memento  of  travel  in  the  western  half 
of  the  United  States,  a  generation  ago,  has  been  copied 
for  this  work.  It  is  a  silent  witness  to  the  wonderful 
energy  of  the  men  who  were  able  to  effect  such  a  combi- 
nation over  a  territory  almost  as  large  as  one-half  of  the 
surface  of  the  C9untry,  as  well  as  of  their  appreciation  of 
the  hardy  traveller  who  was  unselfishly  labouring  for  the 
best  and  highest  interests  of  this  rapidly  develo]3ing  por- 
tion of  the  land.  During  the  year  for  which  this  pass 
was  given, — and  for  some  time  before — Sheldon  Jackson 
had  been  looking  after  the  interests  of  the  natives 
in  far-away  Alaska,  in  addition  to  the  work  which 
engaged  his  attention  in  his  own  great  field,  and  these 
favours  of  the  transportation  companies  enabled  him 
to  visit  some  remote  points  to  the  north  and  south, 
which,  without  this  timely  assistance,  could  not  have 
been  reached. 

Eeferring  to  this  period  of  his  active  labours  Dr. 
Edward  Payson  Tenney,  of  the  Congregational  Church, 
ex-president  of  Colorado  college,  says  : — 


.  j^.^-W3l 


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^  ^:.,,  On  Account  U^^,f,c^^t^^-^f-^,e^ 


ajj«i  jji  j; 


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•£  3!  5 

•^■^•„ 

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■  •"S  '-'  « 

=  2  U 
O  -   C 


E^^  This  Pass  is  Geoi  cvor  all  Linos  in  Utah,  California,  Cohrado,  Nevada,  Tosas, 

Arizona,  Ndw  Mosico,  No'trasia,  Oreeon,  Washiastoc  Territory, 

Idah:,  Daiota,  M  ntana  and  Wvoainj;. 

:■  J  Gilmer,  Salisbury  &  Go's  Stage  Llnes.f^ 

This  Ticket  is  issued  by  tlie  above  named  Comiinny,  and  accepted  by  the  per- 
son heiein  named,  on  ihc  conditions  licrein  set  fortli : 

The  person  who  accepts  this  Ticket  tliereby  assumes  all  risk  of  accidents,  and  in 
consideration  ot  its  receipt,  expressly  agrees  that  the  above  Company  sliall  not  be 
liable  under  any  circumstances,  whether  by  nei;lij;ence — criminal  or  otherwise — of 
its  aj;ents  or  others,  for  any  injury  tu  the  person,  or  lor  l.ss  or  injury  to  pr'oiierty 
wliile  usin;;  this  Ticket,  aiVl  that  as  to  such  person  the  above  Comjiany  shall  not 
be  considered  as  common  earners,  or  liable  as  such. 

larOX    XRAINrSF*KRABlX.E. 

ThisTicket  is  V.ZI  T  Pi  AIISF  ilR  ALLZ,  and  if]  re  enied  by  any  oth-r  per- 
se than  the  jjarly  issued  to,  the  Agent  will  take  it  up,  collecting  V  uli.  Si  \(;h  Kakh. 


I  iicreby  agree  that  this  'I'icket  is  subject  to  the  above  condition 


1B8(>. 


^/U^&^C-.^  jta  (LjZ<^<r^^t_^ 


(sign  in  ink.) 


■'W'nv  11k  Could  Ai-i-uku  to  Tkavkl." 
Facsimile  of  an  annual  stage  pass  covering  fourteen  states  and 
territories.     Without  free  transportation  on  stage  lines,  railroads, 
steamships,  U.  S.  revenue  cutters  and  naval  vessels,  the  extent  of 
Dr.  Jackson's  work  would  have  been  greatly  abridged. 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD     135 

He  has  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  energetic,  self-deny- 
ing, useful  men  in  the  Far  West.  When  he  mounts  his  horse 
at  Denver  he  is  not  so  far  from  the  equator  as  he  is  from  the 
most  neglected  part  of  his  own  district.  Mount  Franklin,  in 
the  edge  of  the  Polar  Sea,  is  nearer  New  York  than  the  dis- 
tance Sheldon  Jackson  travels  in  passing  from  the  southeast 
corner  of  his  parish  to  Sitka  in  the  northwest.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  this  man,  inured  to  hardship,  and  more  enterpris- 
ing than  any  commercial  traveller,  looks  fully  after  every  part 
of  the  work  committed  to  him. 

This  work  was  of  necessity  exceptional,  and  in  some 
respects  without  precedent.  Much  of  it  was  beyond  the 
limit  or  practical  control  of  the  presbyteries  in  which  he 
laboured,  and  there  was  a  necessity  for  personal  supervi- 
sion and  the  assumption  of  personal  responsibility,  which 
did  not  exist  in  the  smaller  fields  and  older  settlements. 
His  answer  to  those  who  charged  him  with  undue  assump- 
tion of  authority  in  the  prosecution  of  his  work,  was  in 
substance  this  : — 

''The  field  was  so  new  and  so  vast  that  I  could  not  con- 
fer with  either  presbytery  or  Mission  Board.  I  was  com- 
pelled to  act  on  my  own  responsibility  and  judgment. 
But  upon  the  first  opportunity,  which  was  usually  not 
longer  than  six  months,  I  reported  to  presbytery  my 
action,  which  was  then  ratified,  and  the  churches  I  had 
organized  were  received  and  enrolled,  by  action  of 
presbytery,  in  due  form.  As  the  area  of  the  terrritory 
was  cut  up  into  smaller  divisions,  the  presbyteries  were 
able  to  look  after  their  destitute?  fields  more  efficiently, 
and  I  was  not  obliged  to  take  so  much  responsibility.  In 
the  earlier  days,  however,  it  was  only  by  assuming  re- 
sponsibility that  I  was  able  to  accomplish  my  work." 

District  supervision  was  more  popular  with  the  New 
School  branch  than  with  the  Old,  in  tlie  decade  which 
preceded  the  Union,  and  the  employment  of  field  or  dis- 
trict secretaries, — as  they  were  termed — to  meet  the  new 


136  SHELDON  JACKSON 

and  unprecedented  conditions  which  had  arisen,  resulted 
in  a  marked  increase  of  interest,  and  of  contributions 
also,  in  connection  with  the  work  on  the  frontier. 

In  the  Old  School  branch,  they  were  designated  as 
district  missionaries.  The  initial  letters  of  this  title  were 
sometimes  facetiously  interpreted  to  mean  Doctor  of  Mis- 
sions, a  degree  more  honourable  in  the  case  of  some  of 
these  faithful  servants  of  the  Church  than  any  subsequent 
honour  conferred  upon  them  by  the  favour  of  college  or 
university.  The  appointment  of  able  and  alert  men  for 
this  work  was  a  concession  to  the  labourers  at  the  front, 
but  the  necessity  for  this  action  was  not  clearly  apj)re- 
hended  by  many  in  the  church,  while  by  others  it  was  re- 
garded as  a  dangerous  departure  in  the  direction  of 
prelacy  or  unauthorized  assumption  of  power.  After  the 
reunion,  the  importance  of  this  exceptional  pioneer  work 
was  more  fully  recognized,  and  those  who  were  commis- 
sioned to  engage  in  it  were  designated  as  synodical  mis- 
sionaries. The  temiDorary  character  of  the  work  was  em- 
phasized, however,  by  the  requirement  that  the  recom- 
mendation for  such  appointments  should  be  made  year  by 
year,  and  a  renewal  was  never  granted  except  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  body  within  whose  bounds  the  service  was  to 
be  rendered.  As  thus  guarded  and  limited,  it  has  become 
an  accepted  agency  of  the  Church  and  is  in  reality  as 
thoroughly  Presbyterian  in  its  workings  as  any  other  office 
of  representative  character  which  has  been  called  into 
being  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  aggressive  mission  work. 
The  colourless  designation — synodical  missionary— which 
might  apply  with  equal  propriety  to  any  missionary  of 
the  synod,  does  not  convey  an  adequate  idea,  however,  of 
the  timely  and  splendid  service  which  such  men  as  Henry 
Little,  A.  J.  Norton,  Timothy  Hill,  Thos.  Frazer  on  the 
Pacific  slope  and  Sheldon  Jackson  rendered  to  the  Church 
in  this  critical  period  of  awakening  and  opportunity. 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  137 

They  were  the  heralds  of  the  Good  Tidings,  the  advisers 
and  helpers  of  discouraged  missionaries  and  struggling 
churches,  the  organizers  of  Christian  society,  the  leaders 
of  men  by  Divine  ordering  and  appointment,  who,  with 
consummate  ability,  each  in  his  place,  superintended  the 
mission  work  in  the  important  field  committed  to  his  care. 

The  publication  of  the  EocJcy  Mountitm  Fresbyterian 
was  commenced  at  Denver,  March,  1871,  with  the 
design  of  bringing  the  Presbyterians  of  the  territories 
into  closer  communication  with  each  other ;  and  also  of 
making  the  churches  of  the  East  acquainted  with  the  ur- 
gent needs  and  marvellous  possibilities  of  this  new  laud. 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  its  sole  editor  and  ijrojjrietor  ;  and 
during  the  ten  years  of  its  existence  it  was  sent  to  all  the 
ministers  on  the  Assembly -roll, — free  of  charge.  Where 
gifts  or  subscriptions  were  sent  by  churches  or  individuals 
they  were  received  with  thanks.  The  writer  has  seen 
scores  of  letters  of  appreciation  and  thankful  acknowledg- 
ment for  helpful  information  received  through  its  col- 
umns, and  in  one  of  these  there  is  mention  of  a  gift  of  $500, 
which  was  sent  by  an  appreciative  friend  to  assist  in  the 
expense  of  its  publication.  Thus  with  pen  and  tongue 
and  pictorial  illustration  the  living  realities  of  the  mis- 
sion work  on  the  frontier  were  kept  before  the  minds  of 
the  Church  and  its  ministry. 

During  the  entire  period  of  Dr.  Jackson's  missionary 
labours  in  this  Ro(;ky  Mountain  Synod,  the  executive 
department  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  was  administered 
jointly  by  Drs.  Henry  Kendall  and  Cyrus  Dickson.  In 
these  great  and  good  men,  who  ''  had  understanding  of 
the  times,  to  know  what  Israel  ought  to  do,"  the  mission- 
aries on  tlie  frontier  found  generous  su])porters  and  sym- 
pathetic helpers  in  tlieir  aggressive  work.  The  period  in 
which  they  served  the  Church  in  this  capacity  was  pre- 
eminently the  hour  of  advance  and  opX)ortunity  ;  and 


138  SHELDON  JACKSON 

never  in  its  history  was  the  cause  they  represented  advo- 
cated with  more  ability  or  managed  with  greater 
efficiency. 

Dr.  Kendall  had  served  the  New  School  Church  in  the 
same  caj)acity  for  nine  years  before  he  was  called  to  this 
position  in  the  United  Church  ;  he  was  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  the  whole  field,  in  so  far  as  it  was  opened  up 
to  civilization  and  settlement.  In  1864,  he  crossed  the 
plains  with  the  gold-seekers  and  adventurers  and  visited 
many  of  the  most  notable  settlements  and  mining  camps 
as  far  west  as  Nevada,  California,  and  Oregon,  in  order 
that  he  might  more  intelligently  provide  for  their  spirit- 
ual interests. 

Dr.  Kendall  was  tall  in  stature,  dignified  in  bearing, 
impressive  in  appearance,  and  winsome  in  manner,  de- 
spite the  look  of  sternness  which  sometimes  came  over  his 
face.  When  he  rose  to  speak  on  his  favourite  theme,  he 
was  the  very  embodiment  of  a  man  charged  with  a  mes- 
sage of  thrilling  import — a  message  which  came  from  a 
heart  all  aglow  with  devotion  to  God  and  country. 

Dr.  Dickson,  the  representative  of  the  Old  School 
branch  of  the  Church,  was  called  to  this  service  from  a 
church  in  Baltimore.  He  regarded  the  office,  which 
came  to  him  unsought,  as  one  of  commanding  influence 
and  importance  ;  and  when  at  length  the  way  was  clear 
to  its  acceptance  he  gave  himself  unreservedly  to  its  claims 
and  duties. 

He  was  not  so  impressive  in  appearance,  so  deliberate 
in  judgment,  or  so  masterful  in  influence  overmen,  as  his 
stalwart  colleague,  but  he  stood  foremost  among  all  the 
platform  orators  of  his  day,  when  pleading  the  cause  of 
the  men  at  the  front ;  or  when  seeking  to  arouse  the 
Church  to  a  sense  of  its  responsibility  and  duty  in  con- 
nection with  the  winning  of  the  whole  land  for  Christ. 
His  addresses  on  such  occasions  were  rare  combinations 


A  GREAT  MIDLAND  SYNOD  139 

of  argument  and  appeal,  tenderness  and  pathos,  wit  and 
•wisdom  ;  and  as  lie  rose  to  the  full  tide  of  eloquence  his 
face  glowed  with  the  deep  feeling  which  stirred  his  own 
soul,  and  the  entire  audience  was  held  as  though  spell- 
bound to  the  last  word. 

The  authority  exercised  by  these  notable  "  chiefs  of  the 
captains"  was  sometimes  questioned,  and  their  acts  were 
frequently  the  subjects  of  severe  criticism, — as  in  the  case 
of  their  agents  and  representatives  in  the  mission  field, — 
but  it  was  a  time  when  a  firm  hand  was  needed  :  and,  as 
new  issues  arose,  they  could  only  be  met  by  the  exercise 
of  a  discretionary  power  which  sometimes  seemed  at 
variance  with  the  precedents  and  traditions  of  the  past. 
The  results  of  tlieir  work,  as  we  see  them  to-day,  however, 
are  the  best  justification  of  the  course  they  pursued. 

The  variety  and  aggressive  character  of  Sheldon  Jack- 
son's work,  under  tlieir  inspiration  and  direction,  maybe 
inferred  from  the  following  items,  culled  from  his  annual 
report  to  the  Board  for  1871, — the  first  full  year  of  his 
labours  within  the  bounds  of  the  Colorado  Synod: — 

Churches  organized — 5  ;  churches  supplied  with  preach- 
ing services — 15;  ministers  located — 8;  houses  of  worship 
built  or  in  process  of  building — 6  ;  lot  secured  for  church 
buildings — 37  ;  funds  secured  outside  the  field — $4,000  ; 
amount  saved  to  the  Board  for  transportation  of  self  and  mis- 
sionaries, by  securing  passes  or  reduced  rates — $3,000 ;  total 
of  miles  travelled  in  prosecution  of  the  work — 29,055. 

Later  reports  show  an  increasing  amount  of  responsi- 
bility, correspondence,  and  travel,  and  one  is  at  a  loss  to 
know  how  enough  waking  hours  could  be  secured  during 
the  busy  years  of  that  memorable  decade  for  the  work 
which  was  undertaken  and  accomplished. 

Thus  were  the  foundations  laid  within  this  vast  and 
rapidly-growing    empire  for  the  strong    and  vigorous 


140  SHELDON  JACKSON 

churches  which  have  influenced  the  thought  and  governed 
the  life  of  many  thousands  of  its  inhabitants  for  an  entire 
generation,  and  have  given  to  Christianity,  of  the  Pres- 
byterian type,  a  place  of  commanding  influence  through- 
out the  Eocky  Mountain  regions. 

The  details  of  the  work,  as  inaugurated  and  carried  on 
by  Sheldon  Jackson  and  his  associates  in  each  of  the  im- 
mense territories  included  in  this  synod,  will  be  told  in 
the  chapters  which  follow.  It  is  fitting,  however,  that 
mention  be  made  in  this  place  of  the  wonderful  growth  of 
these  organizations  in  the  entire  field,  as  shown  by  the 
most  recent  reports  to  the  General  Assembly,  the  latest 
being  for  the  year  1907  : — 

In  1870,  there  were  in  this  great  Midland  Synod  but 
eight  feeble  churches  (not  one  of  which  was  self-support- 
ing) six  ministers,  and  three  presbyteries,  with  scarcely  a 
quorum  in  either  of  them  for  the  transaction  of  business. 
Within  the  same  limits,  as  shown  by  the  statistical  report 
of  1908,  there  are  now  sixteen  presbyteries,  315  ordained 
ministers  and  367  churches.  The  aggregate  of  the  offer- 
ings made  by  these  churches  during  the  year  was  more 
than  twenty  million  dollars.  Where  one  synod  held  the 
ground  in  1870  there  are  now  four  synods ;  where  the 
membership  in  the  aggregate  was  less  than  500,  there  are 
now  32,007  communicant  members,  and  a  Sabbath-school 
membership  of  34,018  ;  where  there  were  no  distinctively 
Christian  schools  or  colleges,  there  are  now  four  col- 
leges and  fifty-three  schools  for  the  exceptional  popula- 
tion under  the  care  of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, itself  an  outgrowth  of  the  work  of  the  same  synod. 

This  is  the  Lord's  doing,— albeit  through  the  use  of 
human  instrumentalities, — and  it  is  marvellous  in  our 
eyes. 


VIII 

PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO 

' '  Zeal  and  duty  are  not  slow ; 
But  on  occasion's  forelock  watchful  wait," 

— Milton. 

THE  territory  of  Colorado,  which  was  carved  out 
of  the  richest  section  of  the  Kocky  Mountains, 
covered  a  spacious  domain,  larger  than  the  com- 
bined areas  of  the  states  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  and  Delaware.  Its  reach  from  north  to  south 
is  280  miles  ;  from  east  to  west,  370  miles.  It  came  into 
being  as  a  distinct  province  of  the  United  States  in  1861, 
the  fateful  year  which  ushered  in  the  Civil  War.  Its 
growth  in  population  was  seriously  retarded  by  this  great 
struggle ;  and  for  some  time  after  its  close  the  Indians 
were  a  constant  menace  to  those  who  attempted  to  cross 
the  plains  by  coach  or  with  the  emigrant  trains.  As  this 
memorable  decade  drew  to  its  close,  the  way  to  the  moun- 
tains was  made  easy  and  safe  by  the  completion  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Kailroad.  About  the  same  time,  rich  de- 
posits of  silver  were  discovered  in  some  sections  of  the 
mountains  and  a  new  impulse  was  giveu  to  emigration 
and  the  development  of  the  country. 

When  Sheldon  Jackson  reached  Denver,  in  the  mouth 
of  February,  1870,  he  found  a  typical  Western  town  with 
only  4,000  inhabitants.  It  was  all  astir  with  life,  how- 
ever, and  the  x)rophecy  of  its  coming  greatness  could  be 
distinctly  read  in  the  movements  on  foot  for  its  enlarge- 

141 


142  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ment  and  easy  communication  with  the  outside  world, 
as  well  as  in  the  confident  assertions  of  its  zealous  pro- 
moters and  public-spirited  citizens.  That  this  confidence 
was  not  misplaced,  was  attested  by  the  increase  of  its 
population  in  two  years  from  this  date  to  10,000  souls. 
On  the  28th  of  June,  1870,  the  first  train  on  the  Denver 
Pacific  road  entered  the  city  of  Denver,  and  from  this 
date  regular  connections  were  made  with  the  transconti- 
nental road  at  Cheyenne.  In  the  summer  of  the  same 
year,  the  Kansas  Pacific  pushed  its  way  across  the  plains 
to  Denver,  opening  up  direct  communication  with  the 
East.  Meanwhile,  preparations  were  being  made  for  the 
building  of  a  railroad  southward  to  Pueblo,  and  of  a  nar- 
row-guage  line  westward  into  the  heart  of  the  mining 
regions  in  the  mountains.  There  were  evidences,  also, 
of  awakening  interest  and  unusual  developments  in  all 
the  towns  and  mining  settlements  of  the  territory. 

Eecognizing  in  these  signs  of  the  times  the  hour  of  op- 
portunity, this  indefatigable  missionary  of  the  cross, 
whose  enthusiasm  in  his  Master's  cause  was  as  intense  as 
it  was  contagious,  took  up  at  once  the  burden  of  responsi- 
bility, which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  had  been  as- 
signed to  him.  After  a  brief  conference  with  the  breth- 
ren of  the  newly  constituted  presbytery,  with  respect  to 
the  supply  of  the  most  needy  places,  he  engaged  passage 
for  the  Monday  morning  following  in  a  stage-coach  bound 
for  Southern  Colorado. 

The  route  was  over  the  Arkansas  Divide,  better  known 
as  the  "  Stormy  Divide,"  whose  summit,  some  fifty  miles 
south  of  Denver,  rises  to  an  altitude  approximating  that 
of  Sherman,  the  highest  point  on  the  line  of  the  Union 
Pacific  road.  The  objective  point  of  the  first  day's 
journey  was  Colorado  City,  at  the  base  of  Pike's  Peak, 
about  eighty  miles  from  Denver.  Mr.  Jackson's  fellow 
travellers  on  this  trip  were  a  ranchman,  an  ex-member 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         143 

of  the  legislature,  a  Spanish  speculator,  a  French  miner, 
and  an  invalid  from  the  East.  All  were  heavily  armed, 
and  the  principal  topic  of  conversation  was  a  horse  race 
which  was  to  take  place  in  the  southern  part  of  the  terri- 
tory the  next  day.  After  a  time  the  fumes  of  tobacco  be- 
came so  dense  that  the  missionary  contingent  of  this  oddly 
assorted  party  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  with  the  driver 
on  the  box  outside.  His  destination  was  reached  in  safety 
late  in  the  night.  The  next  morning  diligent  search  was 
made  for  members  or  adherents  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
but  without  success.  Afterwards,  ten  or  twelve  com- 
municant members  were  found,  but  as  he  went  from  house 
to  house  that  morning  his  questions  were  almost  uniformly 
met  with  the  response, — "There  are  none  in  this  section." 
While  making  an  attempt  to  secure  a  building  belonging 
to  the  Methodist  Church  for  a  public  meetiug,  a  man  came 
up  to  him  in  haste,  as  if  fearful  he  might  escape  him,  and, 
seizing  his  hand,  said,  "  I  am  John  Irvine,  a  Presbyterian 
elder.  I  have  heard  that  you  are  a  Presbyterian  minis- 
ter, and  I  want  you  to  come  with  me  to  my  home." 
**  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "I  am  ;  and  will  go  with  you  with 
pleasure.  Where  do  you  live?"  "About  twenty-five 
miles  dowh  here,"  said  the  man,  pointing  in  the  direction 
he  expected  to  take.  This  reply  was  a  little  startling  for 
the  moment,  but  Mr.  Jackson  reaffirmed  his  acceptance 
of  the  invitation,  and  soon  thereafter  the  start  for  this  un- 
expected journey  was  made. 

A  good  pair  of  mules,  in  fine  condition,  and  accustomed 
to  the  road,  made  the  miles  appear  short,  and  in  due  time 
the  ranch  of  John  Irvine  was  reached.  The  next  morn- 
ing, Mr.  Irvine's  son  was  mounted  on  a  broncho  and  sent 
forth  to  summon  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood  to  a 
preaching  service  in  the  evening.  At  the  appointed 
time,  an  attentive  congregation,  numbering  sixty  persons, 
was  assembled  in  two  of  the  adjacent  rooms  of  the  house. 


144  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Uuder  this  hospitable  roof,  two  days  were  spent  with 
pleasure  and  x^rofit,  and,  on  the  morning  of  the  third, 
the  guest  whom  they  had  welcomed  so  heartily  in  the 
name  of  his  Master,  was  furnished  with  a  pony  and  rode 
to  Pueblo  on  the  Arkansas  Eiver.  On  the  Sabbath  fol- 
lowing— February  27th — a  large  assembly  which  filled  the 
court  room  of  the  j)lace  to  overflowing,  attested  the  inter- 
est felt  in  the  organization  of  a  Presbyterian  church. 
This  organization  was  effected  with  four  members,  John 
Irvine  and  his  wife  living  on  a  ranch  sixteen  miles  dis- 
tant, and  two  women  living  in  the  village.  John  Irvine 
was  cliosen  and  installed  ruling  elder.  The  Methodist 
minister  of  the  village  and  a  minister  of  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church,  who  had  travelled  forty-five  miles 
for  the  purpose,  took  part  in  this  service,  and  also  in  the 
celebration  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which 
immediately  followed  it.  This  service,  reviving  so  many 
precious  associations  of  worship  in  far-away  Eastern 
homes,  was  one  of  unusual  tenderness  and  heartfelt  joy. 
''The  i^reciousness  of  such  scenes,"  says  Dr.  Jackson, 
''as  were  witnessed  on  that  Sabbath,  in  this  frontier  vil- 
lage, must  be  seen  and  felt  to  be  realized.  Could  our 
young  ministers  know  of  the  joy  of  such  labours,  they 
would  the  more  earnestly  ask  to  be  sent  to  the  front." 

This  was  the  first  church  organized  by  the  superintend- 
ent of  missions  in  Colorado,  and  the  results  have  abun- 
dantly attested  the  wisdom  of  establishing  and  nourishing 
it  in  the  day  of  small  things.  The  following  tribute  of 
appreciation  from  Edward  Trumbull  Lee,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
a  former  pastor  of  this  church,  is  worthy  of  a  place  in 
this  connection  : — 

Dr.  Jackson  was  a  wonder  in  those  busy  days.  He  was 
raised  up  of  God  to  do  that  important  work.  The  church 
which  I  served  in  Pueblo,  the  First  Presbyterian,  was  organ- 
ized by  him  with  four  members,  three  of  whom  were  women, 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         145 

and  one  of  the  women  was  the  wife  of  the  one  man.  Now 
that  church  worships  in  a  fifty  thousand  dollar  stone  building, 
all  paid  for;  has  over  five  hundred  members,  and  is  the  mother 
of  four  other  churches  in  the  same  town,  three  of  which  are 
self-supporting ;  and  one  of  them,  the  Mesa  church,  is  vigor- 
ous and  strong.  No  work  tells  so  powerfully  as  work  done  for 
God.  It  is  the  greatest  work  on  earth.  What  are  the  conquests 
of  Alexander  or  Napoleon  in  comparison  with  the  conquests 
of  Marcus  Whitman  and  Sheldon  Jackson  !  I  take  off  my  hat 
to  these  two  missionaries.  The  latter  was  made  moderator  of 
our  General  Assembly,  and  the  Church  was  never  more  hon- 
oured by  the  personality  which  occupied  the  moderator's  chair 
than  in  that  Assembly. 

On  the  day  following  the  Sabbath  spent  at  Pueblo,  a 
church  was  organized  at  Colorado  City,  with  five  mem- 
bers. Four  years  later,  this  congregation  transferred  its 
membership  to  the  more  favourably  located  church  at 
Colorado  Springs.  Meanwhile,  it  did  its  appointed  work 
in  a  needy  community.  The  return  journey  was  made 
by  stage-coach  to  Denver.  The  following  morning,  the 
superintendent  started  on  another  circuit,  which  included 
the  principal  mining  settlements  in  the  heart  of  the 
mountains.  Six  spirited  horses  drew  the  large  Concord 
coach  in  which  he  had  taken  passage,  at  a  rapid  pace 
over  the  plains  to  the  foothills,  up  a  famous  canon  amid 
scenes  of  savage  grandeur,  and  over  three  mountain 
ridges  covered  with  snow  to  Gregory  Gulch,  the  most 
notable  at  that  time  of  all  the  gold-mining  settlements 
in  the  territory.  From  this  place  a  trip  was  made  to 
Georgetown,  the  centre  of  the  silver-mining  district, 
tAventy  miles  distant,  where  a  church  of  sixteen  members 
was  organized.  The  next  day,  Mr.  Jackson  attended  an 
adjourned  meeting  of  presbytery  at  Black  Hawk.  Dur- 
ing the  session  of  this  body  he  went  over  with  a  committee 
to  Idaho  Springs,  where  a  church  with  thirteen  members 
was  organized.     On  the  return  journey,  another  church 


146  SHELDON  JACKSON 

was  organized  at  Golden,  situated  at  the  gateway  of  Clear 
Creek  Caiion,  with  four  members.  Thus  within  a  fort- 
night of  the  most  inclement  season  of  the  year  services 
were  held  at  several  widely  separated  points  and  six 
churches  were  organized,  all  of  which,  except  the  one 
merged  into  the  prosperous  church  of  Colorado  Springs, 
remain  and  are  in  good  condition  to-day.  The  number 
of  miles  travelled  on  this  double  circuit,  by  stage  or  other 
conveyance,  was  but  little  short  of  five  hundred. 

With  the  understanding  that  his  field  of  labour  would  be 
restricted  to  the  mountain  territories  already  named,  under 
the  adjustments  about  to  be  made  by  the  secretaries  of  the 
united  church,  Sheldon  Jackson  decided  to  transfer  his 
place  of  residence  to  Denver, — then  the  key  to  all  the 
Eocky  Mountain  territories — as  soon  as  he  could  com- 
plete the  work  he  had  undertaken  in  the  interests  of  the 
churches  in  Nebraska  and  Western  Iowa.  In  anticipa- 
tion of  this  removal,  he  purchased  some  desirable  lots  in 
one  of  the  new  additions,  before  he  left  Denver.  At  a 
subsequent  visit,  in  July,  he  contracted  for  the  building 
of  a  house.  On  the  5th  of  August,  he  shipped  his  house- 
hold goods  to  Denver,  and  came  on  in  advance  of  his 
family  to  look  after  some  important  interests  of  the  work 
in  Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  One  of  the  immediate  re- 
sults of  his  labours  at  this  time  was  the  organization  of  a 
church  at  Greeley.  This  place  was  laid  out  by  the 
''  Union  Colony  "  of  New  York,  in  the  spring  of  1870,  as 
a  temperance  settlement ;  and  from  the  first  it  was  noted 
for  its  thrift,  intelligence,  and  high  moral  tone.  The 
Presbyterian  church,  because  of  this  timely  action,  has 
been  an  important  factor  in  the  religious  development  of 
the  community,  as  well  as  in  the  town  since  its  establish- 
ment. At  the  present  time  it  has  an  enrollment  of  250 
communicants.  As  soon  as  he  had  completed  the  work 
he  had  outlined  for  this  tour,  Mr.  Jackson  went  to  Gales- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         147 

burg  for  his  family,  and  returDed  with  them  to  Denver 
on  the  24th  of  September.  Soon  after  their  arrival, 
Mrs.  Jackson  was  prostrated  with  a  fever.  About  the 
same  time  two  of  her  daughters  developed  symptoms  of 
scarletina,  which  took  its  usual  course  without  serious 
results.  Not  long  afterwards,  the  infant  daughter  of  the 
household  was  stricken  with  a  disease  which  baffled  the 
skill  of  the  physicians,  and  in  the  end  proved  to  be  fatal. 
This  little  one,  born  at  Council  Bluffs  on  the  1st  day  of 
January,  1870,  was  named  "Louise,"  after  her  aunt, 
Louise  Jackson  Norcross,  Mr.  Jackson's  only  sister.  On 
the  day  following  her  death— October  31st— the  bereaved 
father  carried  the  precious  remains  back  to  Galesburg, 
where  they  were  interred  by  the  side  of  "Mary  Helen," 
another  child  of  the  household  who  died  at  this  place 
September  28,  1861. 

Denver  was  the  home  of  the  Jackson  family  for  almost 
eleven  years,  but  it  was  only  at  rare  intervals  during  this 
period  that  the  head  of  the  household  had  the  opportunity 
to  spend  an  unbroken  fortnight  or  more  with  his  family 
in  the  enjoyment  of  it.  Its  doors  were  always  open,  how- 
ever, to  the  wayfaring  minister  or  the  tourist  from  the 
East,  who  sought  information  concerning  this  vast  mis- 
sionary field  ;  and  there  were  but  few  of  the  missionary 
labourers  who  entered  it,  in  the  early  days,  who  did  not 
find  in  this  hospitable  home  a  resting-place  and  a  warm 
welcome  after  the  fatiguing  experiences  of  a  long  over- 
land journey.  With  easy  grace  and  wonderful  skill, 
Mrs.  Jackson  ordered  the  affairs  of  her  household,  despite 
the  extraordinary  demands  which  were  ofttimes  made 
upon  her  time  and  strength,  and,  in  some  instances,  upon 
her  patience,  also.  Such  as  she  had  for  the  use  of  her 
own  family  she  gave  to  her  stranger  guests  without  dis- 
play or  apology,  in  the  spirit  and  with  the  gi-ace  of 
genuine  hospitality. 


148  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Of  Mary  Jackson's  part  in  the  great  work  to  which  her 
husband  was  so  fully  committed,  not  much  has  been 
written,  except  in  the  book  of  remembrance  on  high  ;  but 
in  the  administration  of  this  service,  so  faithfully  rendered 
in  the  Master's  name,  it  may  be  truly  recorded  of  her : 
"She  hath  done  what  she  could." 

The  growth  of  population  and  the  development  of  new 
industries  throughout  the  territory  were  so  rapid  and 
continuous  prior  to  its  admission  as  a  state,  in  the  year 
1876,  that  the  superintendent  was  obliged  to  give  to  it  a 
larger  portion  of  his  time  than  to  all  the  remainder  of  his 
great  field  combined.  While  constantly  on  the  alert  for 
favourable  times  and  opportunities  to  plant  churches  in 
the  new  centres  of  growth  and  influence,  he  had  more 
than  enough  work  to  occupy  his  full  time  in  supplying, 
strengthening,  and  keeping  alive  the  feeble  churches 
already  established.  At  a  later  period,  it  was  compara- 
tively easy  to  secure  temporary  supplies  until  pastors 
could  be  secured,  but  at  this  time  there  were  not  enough 
resident  or  visiting  ministers  to  keep  pace  with  the  growth 
of  the  country  and  the  necessary  extension  of  the  Church 
and  its  privileges.  Hence,  for  some  years  after  his  re- 
moval to  Denver,  Sheldon  Jackson  went  from  church  to 
church  preaching  on  the  Sabbath,  administering  the 
sacraments,  presiding  at  congregational  meetings,  giv- 
ing counsel,  aid,  and  encouragement ;  and,  in  so  far 
as  possible,  consistently  with  the  claims  of  other  por- 
tions of  his  field,  doing  for  the  community  within 
his  reach  the  full  work  of  a  pastor  at  large.  These 
roundabout  journeys,  undertaken  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year,  covered  distances  ranging  from  thirty  to  two  hun- 
dred miles. 

During  this  period  sixteen  churches,  exclusive  of  the 
six  already  mentioned,  were  organized.  Three  of  this 
number  were  in  mining  camps,  where  they  served  their 


Sheldon  Jackson.     1880. 


IVIrs.  Sheldon  Jackson.     1880. 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         149 

purpose  for  a  time  aud  were  disbanded  by  the  removal 
of  the  i)opulation*;  another  at  Evans,  the  seat  of  a  colony 
organized  in  1870,  was  merged  in  1877  with  the  church 
of  Greeley.  Seven  of  the  fourteen  which  remain  to  this 
day  report  communicant  members  as  follows : — (1907) 
Trinidad,  233;  Lougmont,  235;  Collins,  482;  Boulder, 
801 ;  Canon  City,  836  ;  Colorado  Springs,  1,290.  The  last 
named  organization  is  the  mother  of  two  churches  in  the 
same  city,  and  has  a  national  reputation  for  its  efficiency, 
missionary  zeal,  aud  generous  responses  to  the  various 
beneficent  agencies  of  the  Church.  This  church,  organ- 
ized with  eleven  members,  July  2,  1872,  on  a  site  which 
less  than  a  year  before  was  a  rolling  mesa  without  in- 
habitants, and  worth  but  $1.25  per  acre,  was  carefully 
nurtured  for  several  years  by  the  Home  Board,  amid 
many  discouragements  and  reverses,  but  it  has  grandly 
repaid  all  the  labour  aud  care  expended  uxdou  it. 
Within  the  past  decade  (1897-1907),  it  has  contributed 
more  than  $100,000  for  congregational  expenses  aud  a 
sum  total  of  nearly  $25,000  for  the  work  of  the  several 
Boards. 

In  the  newer  portions  of  the  country  there  were  many 
places  at  this  time  in  which  it  was  not  advisable  to  estab- 
lish churches,  because  of  the  shifting  character  of  the 
popuhition,  where  multitudes  were  living  without  the 
privileges  of  the  Gospel,  to  whom  Mr.  Jackson  ministered, 
as  he  had  opportunity,  on  his  journeys  back  and  forth 
among  the  cliurchcs.  His  vacation  tours  among  the 
mountains  afforded  the  oppoitunity  to  visit  many  an  out- 
of-the-way  camp  or  community,  where  he  had  the  privi- 
lege of  preaching  the  Gospel  for  the  first  time.  An 
instance  in  point  is  given  by  Dr.  H.  M.  Field,  who  spent 
a  portion  of  the  summer  of  1871  in  Colorado.  At  the 
close  of  an  interesting  description  of  the  country  and  the 
condition  of  the  churches,  he  adds  : — 


150  SHELDON  JACKSON 

That  indefatigable  worker,  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  is 
prospecting  around  in  all  parts  of  the  territory,  hunting  up  lost 
sheep  on  the  mountains  and  sowing  the  good  seed  by  all  waters. 
At  a  mining  camp  on  Mount  Bross,  where  as  yet  only  two  of 
the  workmen  had  brought  their  families  and  were  living  in 
homes,  the  question  was  asked,  "Do  you  ever  have  preaching 
up  here?  "  "  Oh,  yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  Sheldon  Jackson  was 
here  last  Sunday  and  we  all  met  in  this  building — a  house  for 
crushing  ore — the  largest  in  the  place ;  and  he  stood  upon  the 
engine  and  gave  us  a  rousing  sermon."  That,  says  the  writer, 
is  the  sort  of  men  needed  in  these  frontier  settlements — men 
who  can  "stand  on  an  engine"  and  preach.  My  friend  Jack- 
son, I  know,  would  not  hesitate,  if  he  thought  he  could  reach 
an  old  hardened  sinner,  to  mount  a  locomotive  and  let  fly  a 
Gospel  message  at  a  group  by  the  wayside  while  going  at  a 
speed  of  forty  miles  an  hour. 

The  following  extract  from  the  correspondence  of  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Eobert  F.  Sample,  who  spent  the  summer  of 
1873  in  Colorado,  is  specially  valuable  because  of  his 
opportunities  to  form  a  personal  j  udgment,  at  first  hand, 
of  the  character  of  the  work  which  this  pioneer  mis- 
sionary of  the  Church  had  done  or  was  attempting  to  do  : — 

Nearly  all  the  evangelical  churches  have  entered  the  terri- 
tory. Presbyterianism,  however,  has  gone  to  the  front,  and  we 
find  a  church  of  our  order  at  many  important  points.  Along 
the  railway  and  stage  routes,  among  the  mining  districts,  and 
in  agricultural  settlements,  we  have  taken  the  initiative  in 
evangelistic  work.  For  all  this  we  are  largely  indebted  to  the 
earnest  and  self-denying  labours  of  Sheldon  Jackson,  superin- 
tendent of  missions  for  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Montana, 
Wyoming,  and  Utah.  A  Zaccheus  in  stature,  he  ascends 
mountains  and  overlooks  the  land.  We  have  known  him  to 
travel  for  forty-eight  hours  in  a  stage-coach,  reaching  his  desti- 
nation in  the  morning,  preaching  three  times  on  the  day  of  his 
arrival,  arranging  for  the  settlement  of  a  pastor,  and  laying  the 
foundations  of  a  temporary  manse,  which  was  completed  and 
occupied  by  a  young  minister  and  his  wife  before  the  next  Sab- 
bath. And  a  few  days  later,  perhaps,  in  Utah  or  Montana, 
printed  placards  announce  that  this  untiring  evangelist  will 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO        151 

preach  in  the  hall  above  a  lager  beer  saloon,  or  in  the  dining- 
room  of  a  hotel.  Meanwhile,  the  Rocky  Mountain  Presbyterian, 
the  only  religious  newspaper  in  Colorado,  is  published  and 
scattered  abroad  ;  and  scores  of  letters  to  missionaries,  or  those 
who  are  preparing  to  labour  in  the  great  home  field,  have  been 
written.  The  Church  is  beginning  to  appreciate  the  labours  of 
such  men,  and  honours  the  pioneers  in  the  Master's  work,  who 
lay  the  foundations  of  Presbyterianism  in  the  scattered  settle- 
ments of  the  great  West, 


An  evidence  of  appreciation  in  keeping  ■witli  this  inti- 
mation was  given  in  tlie  year  following  by  Hanover  Col- 
lege, Indiana,  itself  the  direct  product  of  home  mission 
labours,  in  the  conferring  of  the  honourary  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity  upon  Sheldon  Jackson. 

In  the  roundabout  journeys,  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  there  were  perils  to  be  faced  as  well  as  hard- 
ships and  discomforts  to  be  endured.  Some  of  these  were 
incident  to  the  rude  civilization  of  the  time  in  the  more 
remote  sections  of  the  country  and  the  reckless  assump- 
tion of  risks  by  those  who  were  charged  with  the  duty  of 
speeding  the  traveller  on  his  way.  The  writer  can  recall 
some  down  grade  exi)eriences  of  travel  by  stage-coach  in 
Colorado  in  the  early  seventies,  which  for  swiftness  of 
descent  and  reckless  rounding  of  curves  would  match  the 
famous  ride  of  Horace  Greeley  in  the  Sierra  Nevadas ; 
but  through  all  such  experiences,  so  frequent  that  they  be- 
came commonplace,  he  escaped  without  loss  of  life  or  limb. 

On  one  of  his  winter  journeys  he  was  delayed  for 
thirty-six  hours  by  snow-drifts  on  the  Arkansas  Divide. 
On  another  occasion,  wliile  attempting  to  board  a  stage- 
coach a  mile  and  a  half  from  his  camping- place,  in  order 
to  fill  an  appointment  at  Pueblo,  he  unconsciously  as- 
sumed the  role  of  a  road-agent  and  for  a  few  moments 
faced  one  of  the  most  perilous  experiences  of  his  life.  It 
so  happened  that  the  coach,  which  was  due  at  this  point 


152  SHELDON  JACKSON 

about  midnight,  carried  on  tliat  trij)  a  sheriff  and  his  posse 
who  were  bringing  a  noted  desi^erado  to  the  county  seat 
for  trial.  While  on  the  way  this  party  had  received 
notice  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  at  some  point  to 
"hold  up"  the  stage-coach  and  rescue  the  prisoner. 
When  Dr.  Jackson,  intent  only  upon  reaching  his  desti- 
nation, appeared  by  the  roadside  between  stations  at  this 
unseemly  hour,  and  signalled  the  driver  to  stop,  the 
guards  on  the  alert  within  naturally  associated  him  with 
the  leadership  of  a  band  of  brigands  in  ambush.  Before 
he  could  explain  the  situation,  or  even  comprehend  its 
full  significance,  a  half  dozen  revolvers,  thrust  out  from 
the  coach,  covered  his  person  at  close  range  and  the 
ominous  click  of  the  hammers  which  accompanied  this 
action  warned  him  that  there  was  but  the  trembling  of  a 
finger  between  him  and  instant  death.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  he  surrendered  unconditionally  ;  and  when  the 
whole  matter  was  made  clear  was  cordially  welcomed  to 
the  fellowship  of  the  inmates  of  the  coach. 

After  the  adjournment  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
1871,  which  had  held  its  sessions  at  Chicago,  a  number  of 
the  commissioners  with  their  wives  and  personal  friends 
took  advantage  of  special  privileges  accorded  by  the  rail- 
road companies  to  extend  their  journey  across  the  plains 
to  the  city  of  Denver.  To  supplement  this  arrangement, 
Sheldon  Jackson,  with  his  usual  alertness  and  tact, 
secured  reduced  rates  for  a  round  trip  of  several  days 
among  the  mountains,  and  when  they  were  ready  to  leave 
Denver  to  make  this  round  he  conducted  the  party  in  per- 
son. While  at  Georgetown,  the  seat  of  the  silver-mining 
region,  the  opportunity  was  given  to  ascend  Grey's  Peak. 
A  limited  number  of  the  company,  including  the  Hon. 
Felix  Brunot,  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Indian  Commis- 
sioners, Dr.  H.  Kendall,  secretary  of  the  Home  Board, 
Mrs.    Kendall,   and  two  friends,  and  Thomas  Cree  of 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO        153 

Pittsbm^g,  availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity.  After 
they  had  "  viewed  the  landscape  o'er  from  this  magnifi- 
cent outlook  "  of  the  continent,  the  party  returned  to  the 
place  where  they  had  left  their  carriages.  In  ascending 
the  mountain,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Kendall  had  occupied  a  seat 
in  a  carriage  with  Dr.  Jackson,  but  on  account  of  the 
steep  grade  at  or  near  this  point  Mrs.  Kendall  decided  to 
continue  the  journey  on  horseback.  For  the  same 
reason.  Dr.  Kendall  announced  his  intention  of  walking 
down  the  steepest  part  of  the  incline  near  the  Terrible 
works,  and  left  the  carriage.  Dr.  Jackson,  who  was 
driving  the  team,  was  carefully  working  his  way  down 
the  mountain  when  suddenly  one  of  the  horses  shied  at 
something  in  or  near  the  road  and  pressed  the  other  to 
the  edge  of  the  embankment  on  the  opposite  side.  See- 
ing his  peril,  and  utterly  unable  to  check  the  momentum 
of  the  vehicle,  he  leaped  out  on  the  road,  but  not  an  in- 
stant too  soon,  for  the  horses  and  carriage  went  over  the 
slight  barrier  which  guarded  the  road  and  plunged  down- 
ward, almost  perpendicularly,  to  the  bed  of  a  rusliiug 
stream,  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  below.  The 
carriage  was  comi)letely  wrecked,  but,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  the  horses  were  not  killed.  One  of  them,  when 
freed  from  the  harness,  rolled  over  into  the  stream  and 
was  carried  down  through  swirling  rapids  and  by  im- 
mense outjutting  rocks  to  a  dam  a  (puirter  of  a  mihi  be- 
low. When  rescued  from  its  perilous  position,  the  horse, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  cuts  and  bruises,  was  found  to 
be  in  fairly  good  condition.  "  The  escape,"  says  one  of 
the  party,  "was  most  marvellous,  and  had  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Kendall  been  in  the  carriage  at  the  time  they  could  hardly 
have  escaped  certain  death." 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly  of  1874,  at  St.  Louis, 
Dr.  Jackson  arranged  for  another  excursion  to  Colorado 
on  a  larger  scale,  and  in  response  to  notices  given  during 


154  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  sessions  of  that  body,  about  one  hundred  persons,  in- 
cluding many  notable  men  and  women  from  all  quarters 
of  the  land,  were  enrolled  for  the  joui'uey.  This  party 
from  first  to  last  was  conducted  and  cared  for  by  this  busy 
agent  of  the  Church  in  the  Eocky  Mountains,  and  one  of 
its  avowed  objects  was  to  afford  the  opportunity  to  see  for 
themselves  and  those  whom  they  represented,  the  actual 
condition  and  marvellous  iDOSsibilities  of  the  vast  region  . 
so  recently  opened  to  the  evangelizing  influences  and 
operations  of  the  churches.  On  the  return  of  the  excur- 
sionists from  the  mountain,  where  they  received  many 
favours  from  friends  and  officials  of  the  transportation 
lines,  they  were  notified  that  arrangements  had  been  made 
for  another  journey,  at  the  expense  of  the  railroad  com- 
pany, to  Colorado  Springs  and  Pueblo,  including  on  the 
return  journey  a  Sabbath  at  Manitou,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  a  visit  to  the  Garden  of  the  Gods.  This  round, 
including  carriages  and  hotel  accommodations,  was  made 
without  charge  to  their  visitors,  through  the  generous  co- 
operation of  the  residents  of  the  places  named  with  the 
railroad  company  ;  but  back  of  it  all  was  the  unseen  hand 
of  the  missionary  bishop  who  had  won  the  confidence  of 
these  advance  agents  of  civilization  and  who  had  been 
one  of  their  most  efficient  helpers  in  the  dissemination  of 
information  concerning  the  interests  they  were  labouring 
to  advance.  Among  the  direct  results  of  this  visit,  were 
the  securing  of  a  pastor  for  one  of  the  vacant  churches  of 
Denver  and  gifts,  in  the  aggregate,  of  several  hundred 
dollars  from  interested  persons  in  aid  of  some  of  the 
financially  embarrassed  churches. 

In  concluding  an  interesting  account  of  this  excursion, 
the  Eev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Allen  writes  : — 

We  had  for  our  leader  the  indomitable  Sheldon  Jackson, 
superintendent  for  this  Rocky  Mountain  region.  His  name  is 
already  the  synonym  of  energy  and  efficiency,  and  is  known 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         155 

throughout  the  Church,  wherever  home  missions  has  a  home 
ill  the  hearts  of  the  people.  He  has  greatly  endeared  himself 
to  the  members  of  this  excursion,  who  represent  all  parts  of 
our  Church,  from  New  York  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  He  has 
called  our  attention  to  his  field  of  labour  and  shown  us  its 
wants,  giving  us  knowledge  and  impressions  which  could  only 
be  gained  by  personal  observation.  Every  one  who  has  made 
the  tour  will  in  the  future  take  a  deeper  interest  in  the  evangel- 
ization of  this  section  of  the  land. 


"WTien  Colorado  was  admitted  into  the  Union  witli  fit- 
ting ceremonies  and  celebrations  as  the  Centennial  State, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  was  one  of  the  most  i^oteut  in- 
fluences for  good  within  its  widely-extended  borders. 
In  the  northern  portion  of  the  state,  it  had  occupied  all 
the  strategic  points  and  was  strongly  intrenched  in  the 
chief  centres  of  industry  and  influence.  With  the  pass- 
ing of  the  days  of  territorial  rule,  the  transformation 
from  the  unsettled  conditions  of  frontier  life  to  the  quiet 
and  orderly  ways  of  civilized  communities  was  rapid  and 
continuous,  and  to  this  extent  the  urgent  necessity  for 
pioneer  work  in  advance  of  presbyterial  oversight  and 
direction  had  practically  ceased.  From  this  date  until 
he  was  transferred  to  a  new  field  of  labour  Dr.  Jackson 
gave  the  greater  part  of  the  time  which  could  be  spared 
from  his  work  in  the  other  portions  of  the  synod,  to  the 
newer  and  more  remote  settlements  and  mining  camps 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  state.  Mingled  with  a  horde 
of  incoming  settlers  in  this  section  there  were  more 
than  twenty  thousand  Spanish-speaking  people  of  Mexican 
descent,  who  in  general  were  as  ignorant  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  evangelical  religion  as  they  were  of  the  rudi- 
ments of  a  common  school  education. 

In  the  spring  of  1875,  the  Rev.  Alexander  M.  Darley 
was  sent  to  Del  Norte  with  instructions  to  itinerate  in  all 
the  accessible  regions  round  about,  and,  if  the  way  should 


156  SHELDON  JACKSON 

be  clear,  to  make  a  visit  to  the  San  Juan  country,  on  tlie 
western  slope  of  the  Sierra  Madre  range,  into  which  mul- 
titudes were  going  to  search  for  gold.  By  previous  ap- 
j)oiutmeut,  the  superintendent  met  Mr.  Darley  at  Del 
Norte  and  assisted  him  in  the  organization  of  a  church 
at  that  place  on  the  11th  of  April.  Mr.  Darley  had  the 
privilege  of  preaching  the  first  Presbyterian  sermon  in 
that  portion  of  the  state  which  lies  to  the  west  of  the 
Sangre  de  Christo  Mountains,  as  well  as  the  first  sermon 
in  the  San  Juan  region,  on  the  Pacific  slope  of  the  Conti- 
nental Divide.  In  this  important  work,  which  was  at- 
tended with  hardshij)  and  peril,  Darley  was  ably  assisted 
for  a  time  by  a  younger  brother,  George  M.  Darley,  a 
skilled  mechanic,  who  had  given  up  a  lucrative  position 
to  study  for  the  ministry.  Under  the  tutelage  of  his 
brother,  George  Darley  supported  himself  by  the  labour 
of  his  hands,  preaching  and  holding  services  for  prayer 
in  the  mining  camps  and  on  the  outposts,  as  he  had 
opportunity. 

At  Lake  City,  he  built  the  first  Presbyterian  house  of 
worship  on  the  Pacific  slope  of  the  great  Divide,  and  for  the 
most  part  with  his  own  hands.  In  order  to  hasten  its 
progress  as  it  approached  completion,  he  laboured 
through  a  period  of  thirty-six  hours  without  sleep  or  rest, 
except  the  brief  pauses  at  meal-times.  While  engaged  in 
this  work,  he  preached  at  this  and  other  points  in  reach 
on  the  Sabbath.  For  some  time  before  his  ordination,  in 
which  the  writer  was  privileged  to  have  a  part,  young 
Darley  was  encouraged  to  exercise  his  gifts  in  ministering 
to  those  in  this  neglected  region,  who  were  as  sheep  without 
a  shepherd,  and  nobly  did  he  respond  to  the  trust  which 
was  committed  to  his  hands.  At  this  time,  and  in  later 
years,  he  was  a  typical  representative  of  the  noble  band 
of  missionaries  on  the  frontier  who  laboured  zealously  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  courageously  and  without  com- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO        157 

plaint,  to  plant  the  banner  of  the  Cross  on  the  very  skir- 
mishing line  of  the  army  of  occupation.  His  devoted 
wife,  a  woman  of  rare  culture  and  ability  who  was  the 
first  minister's  wife  of  any  denomination  to  cross  the 
Sierra  Madre  range  in  Colorado,  was  just  as  truly  a  typ- 
ical representative  of  the  majority  of  the  wives  of  our 
missionaries  on  the  frontier.  On  one  occasion  it  was 
necessary  for  her  to  cross  the  range  over  deep  snow  with 
her  three  small  children  to  a  point  on  the  railroad  one 
hundred  and  seventy  miles  from  Lake  City.  The  trip 
was  made  in  a  sleigh  to  the  summit  of  the  Cochetopa  Pass, 
which  was  reached  about  midnight.  A.  short  distance  be- 
yond it,  the  sleigh  was  upset,  owing  to  the  carelessness  of 
a  drunken  driver,  and  the  passengers  were  thrown  down 
the  mountainside.  Mrs.  Barley,  holding  fast  to  her  little 
babe,  fell  against  a  projecting  rock,  bruising  her  shoulder 
and  cutting  her  face  in  several  places,  from  which  the  blood 
flowed  freely.  One  of  her  cliildren  fell  near  her  and  was 
not  injured  ;  the  other  child  was  found  after  a  search  of 
some  minutes  securely  rolled  up  in  his  blankets  and  sound 
asleep.  When  the  sleigh  went  over  the  road,  the  fright- 
ened horses  ran  away,  leaving  the  little  party  in  this  ex- 
posed situation,  in  the  midst  of  snow-drifts  too  deep  for 
walking,  without  fire  or  shelter.  TIk^  nearest  station  on 
the  road  wjis  three  miles  away  ;  but,  fortunately,  tlier«i  was 
an  army  post  about  a  mile  from  the  Pass,  and  as  the 
horses  dashed  past  it  a  soldier  on  guard  saw  them  and 
awoke  the  captain  in  command.  A  party  of  soldiers  was 
at  once  sent  out  down  the  road.  The  first  evidence  they 
had  of  the  wreck  was  a  little  roll  of  baby  clothes  in  the 
snow.  Following  on  with  haste  they  soon  found  Mrs.  Bar- 
ley and  the  children,  and  offered  to  take  them  to  a  place  of 
shelter.  As  one  of  them  took  up  the  little  babe,  Mrs. 
Barley  noticed  that  he  was  a  coloured  man,  and  fearing 
that  she  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  gang  of  desperados, 


158  SHELDON  JACKSON 

at  once  asked  who  they  were,  and  where  they  were  tak- 
ing her.  In  reply,  the  leader  of  the  party  assured  her 
that  he  was  an  officer  in  the  regular  army  and  raising  his 
lantern  showed  his  shoulder  straps.  With  this  assurance 
she  went  with  them  to  the  camp  where  the  soldiers  did 
everything  in  their  power  to  make  the  mother  and  chil- 
dren comfortable.  The  next  day  they  were  sent  to  the 
nearest  town  on  the  line  of  their  journey,  and  two  days 
thereafter  reached  the  terminus  of  the  Denver  and  Eio 
Grande  Eailroad.  Through  experiences  such  as  these, 
delicate  women,  as  well  as  strong  men,  were  sometimes 
called  to  pass,  in  order  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  outposts 
of  the  regions  beyond.  With  the  laudable  ambition  to 
carry  this  message  in  advance  of  all  other  denominations 
to  the  new  centres  of  coming  influence  in  the  San  Juan 
region,  Dr.  Jackson  requested  Mr.  Darley  to  visit  one  or 
two  of  the  new  towns  farther  to  the  west  which  were  be- 
ginning to  attract  attention  and  were  giving  promise  of 
rapid  growth.  One  of  these  places  was  Ouray,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Engineer  Mountain.  To  make  this  jour- 
ney, a  round  of  250  miles,  it  was  necessary  to  take  blan- 
kets and  provisions,  and  for  this  purpose  a  "buiTo"  was 
secured.  Finding  a  young  printer,  who  wished  to  go  to 
Ouray,  Mr.  Darley  joined  forces  with  him  and  on  the  20th 
of  March  they  started  out  on  foot  driving  the  patient 
donkey,  which  carried  the  impedimenta,  before  them. 
The  snow,  which  averaged  a  foot  or  two  in  depth,  was 
found  to  be  four  or  five  feet  in  some  places  and  the  whole 
distance  was  through  a  wilderness  without  an  inhabitant, 
except  at  the  TJte  Indian  Agency.  The  first  day  they 
walked  twenty-five  miles,  reaching  a  deserted  log  cabin. 
By  the  third  day  the  bread  by  constant  jolting  upon  the 
burro  had  become  so  fine  as  to  necessitate  eating  it  with  a 
spoon ;  while  the  snow-storms  were  so  continuous  that 
much  of  the  way  they  could  not  find  any  wood  dry  enough 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         159 

to  mate  a  fire.  The  fourth  night,  in  the  midst  of  a  severe 
suow-storm,  they  reached  the  Indian  agency,  having  had 
altogether  only  about  three  hours'  sleep  in  as  many  nights. 
One  of  these  nights  they  were  kept  awake  by  the  wolves, 
which  came  so  near  that  they  could  hear  the  snap  of  their 
teeth.  From  constant  exposure  to  the  wet  and  cold,  their 
limbs  had  swollen  to  nearly  twice  their  natm-al  size, 
making  every  effort  to  use  them  acutely  painful. 

During  the  last  day's  journey,  which  covered  a  reach  of 
twenty-five  miles,  they  forded  the  Uncompahgre  Eiver,  a 
rushing  mountain  torrent  of  ice- water,  waist  deep,  twenty- 
one  times.  At  8  o'clock  p.  m.  their  destination  was 
reached.  Thus  the  first  minister  of  the  Gospel  reached 
Ouray.  As  one  has  expressed  it,— "Pluck  always  wins 
in  this  country,"  and,  in  view  of  the  circumstances,  it 
was  not  a  suri^rising  thing  that  many  of  the  citizens  of 
the  place,  of  all  denominations,  rallied  around  the  blue 
banner  of  Presbyterianism  and  gave  their  names  for  a 
church  organization. 

When  the  time  came  for  the  second  trip  to  Ouray,  the 
river  was  so  swollen  with  the  summer  floods  that  the  trail 
was  impassable,  and  the  only  practicable  route  was  over 
the  main  mountain  range,  the  elevation  of  which  was  be- 
tween thirteen  and  fourteen  thousand  feet.  Dr.  Jackson 
accompanied  Mr.  Darley  on  this  journey  and  assisted  him 
in  the  organization  of  the  church.  On  the  third  trip,  he 
canvassed  the  town  to  secure  funds  for  the  building  of  a 
house  of  worship,  which  was  erected  and  dedicated  in 
sixty  days  from  the  reception  of  the  first  contribution. 
In  this,  as  in  every  other  instance,  the  first  church  on  the 
ground  received  the  largest  local  support. 

While  crossing  tlie  Sierra  Madre  Mountains  on  snow- 
shoes,  in  the  spring  of  1877-,  this  dauntless  missionary 
and  his  companion,  Gus  Talbot,  the  veteran  mail-carrier, 
were  lost  for  more  than  three  hours  amid  the  snow-clouds 


160  SHELDON  JACKSON 

which  drifted  aud  sm-ged  around  them,  obscuring  all  the 
landmarks  by  the  way.  At  one  point  on  a  trackless 
slope  which  they  were  descending,  the  mail-carrier 
plunged  over  a  concealed  cliif  and  disappeared  from 
sight.  At  the  same  moment,  Mr.  Darley,  seeing  his 
peril,  sprang  aside  while  a  great  cake  of  S'.iow  gave  way 
just  at  his  feet.  Recovering  himself  from  the  momentum 
of  the  swift  descent,  he  returned  to  the  spot  where  his 
friend  had  disapi^eared,  and,  to  his  great  delight,  found 
him  emerging  from  the  snowy  bed  into  which  he  had 
fallen.  Going  more  carefully,  to  avoid  a  similar  experi- 
ence, they  came  at  length  to  the  timber  line.  Amid  the 
pines  they  found  a  temporary  shelter,  and  a  clue  to  the 
direction  in  which  they  wished  to  go.  With  renewed 
energy  they  pushed  on  towards  Silverton,  the  objective 
point  of  their  journey,  some  fifteen  miles  distant,  which 
they  reached  almost  at  the  point  of  exhaustion  after 
nightfall.  The  next  day  Gus  Talbot,  the  plucky  mail- 
carrier,  told  the  people  of  Silverton  that  they  could  tie 
to  George  M.  Darley,  for  out  of  more  than  one  hundred 
men  who  had  attempted  to  travel  with  him  over  this 
route,  the  Presbyterian  preacher  was  the  only  one  that 
had  the  grit  to  keep  with  him  all  the  way.  On  Monday, 
a  subscription  paper  was  started  for  a  church  building, 
and  thus  another  outpost  was  taken  possession  of  in  the 
name  of  the  Master. 

An  interesting  account  of  Dr.  Jackson's  trip  to  Ouray 
with  Mr.  Darley  was  written  for  the  Bockij  Mountain 
Preshifterian,  from  which  the  selection  following  is  taken. 
The  journey  was  undertaken,  as  already  intimated,  for 
the  purpose  of  organizing  a  church. 


After  a  pleasant  Sabbath  spent  with  the  little  church  at  Lake 
and  the  family  of  Mr.  Darley,  Mr.  Darley  and  myself  started 
on  Monday  morning  for  Ouray.     Taking  the  stage  to  Capitol, 


PIOITEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO        161 

we  rode  up  the  canon  of  Hanson  Creek  for  ten  miles,  between 
lofty  rock-walls  from  loo  to  i,ooo  feet  high.  By  noon  we  were 
at  Capitol.  After  a  good  dinner,  we  shouldered  our  blankets 
and  provisions  and  started  on  foot  up  the  canon.  All  along  were 
beautiful  waterfalls  and  cascades  a  thousand  feet  high.  Here 
and  there  we  passed  where  the  avalanche  had  cut  a  broad 
swath  down  the  mountainside,  carrying  away  the  trees,  both 
stump  and  limbs.  Five  miles  up,  at  the  edge  of  the  snow  line, 
we  came  to  a  new  log  cabin,  built  by  Messrs.  Smith  and  Harris. 
Here  we  camped  for  the  night. 

About  sundown  the  clouds  began  to  gather  and  the  snow  to 
fall,  and  with  it  fell  our  hopes  of  crossing.  But  earnest  prayer 
was  made  that  He  who  causes  the  elements  to  do  His  bidding 
should  so  control  them  that  we  could  get  across.  Soon  the 
clouds  floated  away  and  the  sky  was  clear  again. 

Our  blankets  were  spread  upon  a  pile  of  shingles  and  I  was 
soon  sleeping  soundly.  Mr.  Darley,  who  could  not  sleep,  kept 
the  fire  burning  and  amused  himself  by  throwing  chips  at  the 
chipmunks  that  played  about  the  floor  and  ran  over  our  beds. 
At  2  A.  M.,  he  woke  me  with  the  announcement  that  break- 
fast was  ready.  Eating  breakfast  of  bacon,  biscuit  and  coffee, 
by  half-past  three  we  were  on  our  way  to  get  over  the  crust  be- 
fore the  morning  sun  should  soften  it. 

We  floundered  over  the  fallen  timber  in  the  dark,  felt  our 
way  over  logs  across  the  streams  or  waded  them,  and  when 
boots  and  socks  were  thoroughly  wet,  we  found  a  grim  satisfac- 
tion in  wading  all  subsequent  streams  rather  than  balance  on 
an  uncertain  log.  In  an  hour  we  were  at  timber  line,  or  an 
elevation  where  timber  ceases  to  grow.  We  now  started  zigzag 
up  the  vast  field  of  frozen  snow  and  ice.  The  air  grew  rarer 
and  rarer,  and  breathing  became  more  and  more  difficult. 
The  wet  boots  became  frozen  and  the  wet  feet  ached  as  if  they 
were  freezing  too.  Up,  and  still  up,  we  went.  Each  step  the 
heel  of  the  boot  was  driven  firmly  into  the  frozen  snow — 
each  one  trying  to  step  in  the  dent  made  by  the  one  who  pre- 
ceded him.  A  misstep  or  slip  would  send  the  unlucky 
traveller  whirling  down  the  snow-face  of  the  mountain,  to  be 
dashed  in  pieces  on  the  rocks  below.  Every  few  steps,  secur- 
ing our  heels  in  the  snow,  we  would  lie  out  at  full  length  ex- 
hausted, heart  thumping,  nose  bleeding,  eyes  running,  and  ears 
ringing.  Sometimes  the  blood  was  forced  from  both  eyes  and 
ears.     From  near  the  summit  a  detached  rock  was  sent  whirl- 


162  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ing  down  the  vast  snow-field  until  a  mile  below  it  seemed  like  a 
top  spinning  on  the  floor. 

Daylight  was  approaching  and  still  we  were  painfully  climb- 
ing, until,  as  the  first  rays  of  the  morning  sun  were  lighting  up 
a  hundred  grand  mountain  peaks  around,  we  gained  the  sum- 
mit— 13,500  feet.  And  from  that  summit  v/hat  a  panorama 
greeted  our  eyes  !  On  either  side  was  Mt.  Sickels  and  Engi- 
neer's Peak.  Off  to  the  north,  the  great  Uncompahgre  Peak, 
14,235  feet  high,  was  head  and  shoulders  above  his  fellows ; 
far  away  to  the  west,  in  the  dim  blue  distance,  was  the  Wah- 
satch  range  of  Utah ;  while  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  in 
every  direction  was  a  wilderness  of  peaks,  and  all  covered  with 
snow,  with  the  exception  of  some  rocks  too  steep  for  the  snow 
to  lie  upon.  Nothing  but  snow  was  visible — a  Canadian 
January  scene  in  the  middle  of  June. 

But  it  was  too  cold  to  tarry  and  we  were  soon  plunging  down 
the  western  face  of  the  mountain.  Where  it  was  not  too  steep, 
we  ran  down  the  face  of  the  snow,  and  where  it  was  too 
steep  for  running,  we  would  sit  down  and  slide.  And  such  a 
slide  of  a  thousand  feet  at  a  breakneck  speed  might  well  be  the 
great  event  of  the  season  for  the  average  schoolboy.  Between 
running  and  sliding  we  were  down  in  twenty  minutes,  a  dis- 
tance that  on  the  other  side  had  cost  us  two  hours  of  painful 
climbing,  and  were  at  the  first  cabin  on  the  head-waters  of  the 
Uncompahgre  River.  Without  halting,  we  plunged  down  the 
canon,  as  there  was  yet  considerable  snow  to  be  crossed.  The 
descent  was  rapid,  and  the  trail  bordered  with  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  waterfalls,  any  one  of  which  would  have  repaid  a  trip 
of  hundreds  of  miles.  Soon  after  reaching  timber  line  the 
snow  ran  out,  and  we  had  a  succession  of  dry  ground,  mud, 
and  fording  the  mountain  torrents.  Down  we  go  until  we 
reached  Poughkeepsie  Creek,  which  through  a  wild  and 
almost  inaccessible  canon  joins  the  Uncompahgre  from  the 
west. 

Here  we  lost  the  trail  and  got  off  into  the  fallen  timber.  By 
the  time  the  trail  was  found,  my  feet  were  so  bhstered,  travel- 
ling in  wet  and  at  times  frozen  boots,  that  I  could  go  no 
farther.  We  were  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  still  ten  miles 
from  town.  It  was  decided  that  Mr.  Darley  should  leave  the 
provisions  and  blankets  with  me,  and  then  push  on  to  Ouray 
and  send  back  a  horse  to  carry  me  in.  Building  a  fire  and 
spreading  the  blankets,  I  went  to  sleep,  with  my  feet  drying  at 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         1C3 

the  fire.  Four  hours  passed,  and  Mr.  Darley  returned  without 
the  horse.  Shortly  after  leaving  me.  he  had  again  become 
lost,  and,  wandering  around,  found  himself  at  the  bottom  of  a 
deep  canon,  where  the  water  of  the  mountain  torrent  filled  from 
rock  to  rock  shutting  off  all  farther  progress.  To  extricate 
himself  from  that  gorge,  he  had  climbed  great  pine-trees,  that 
like  stairs  enabled  him  to  get  from  one  ledge  of  rock  to  another. 
On  his  return,  he  had  met  a  miner  going  to  Ouray,  and,  being 
too  much  exhausted  to  walk  in  with  him,  had  sent  a  note  in- 
forming the  Presbyterians  of  our  situation. 

After  a  good  rest  in  camp,  a  burro  pack  train  came  along 
and  we  hired  our  passage  into  Ouray  on  the  same  kind  of  an 
animal  that  the  Saviour  made  His  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusa- 
lem. So,  mounting  a  burro,  without  saddle  or  bridle,  we 
started  for  town.  The  trail  led  up  and  down  mountainsides 
so  steep,  that,  going  up,  we  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  from 
sliding  off  behind,  and,  in  going  down,  we  felt  like  bracing 
with  our  feet  behind  the  animal's  ears,  and  along  the  edge  of 
precipices,  where  the  giving  away  of  a  stone  would  send  both 
animal  and  rider  into  the  foaming  river  a  thousand  feet  below. 
Just  before  reaching  the  village,  we  met  a  party  with  horses  and 
provisions  coming  to  our  relief,  and  soon  after  we  were  safe 
among  friends.  An  appointment  was  made  for  preaching,  and 
on  the  evening  of  June  13th,  after  the  sermon,  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Ouray  was  organized. 


In  his  book  of  recent  date,  "Pioneering  in  the  San 
Juan,"  '  Mr.  Darley, — now  a  doctor  of  divinity  and  an 
ex-college  president — mentions  the  fact  that  in  the  spring 
of  1890,  less  than  thirteen  years  after  this  perilous  journey, 
he  rode  in  a  palace  car  through  a  portion  of  the  same  re- 
gion and  found  prosperous  towns,  where  in  1877  the  Ute 
Indians  and  wild  animals  had  full  possession.  In  this 
connection  the  writer  gratefully  acknowledges  his  obliga- 
tion to  Dr.  Darley  for  the  valuable  information  he  gleaned 
from  this  book  of  reminiscences.  It  gives  the  true  story 
of  a  "Sky  Pilot"  of  the  mining  camps,  a  story  more 

*  "Pioneering  in  the  San  Juan,"  Kevell  Co.,  New  York. 


164  SHELDON  JACI^SON 

wonderful  in  its  details  than  any  creation  of  fancy  or 
romance/ 

In  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Evangelist^  from  Denver, 
where  he  met  Dr.  Jackson  after  his  return  from  this  trip 
among  the  Sierras,  Dr.  Theodore  Cuyler  says : — 

The  most  remarkable  pioneer  of  missionary  work  here  is 
that  heroic  Kit  Carson  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Sheldon 
Jackson.  The  brave  little  man  jumped  into  our  car  on  Satur- 
day, just  in  from  a  tramp  over  the  snow  mountains,  carrying 
his  own  blanket  and  provisions.  He  has  been  among  the  miners 
of  the  San  Juan  region,  and  is  prospecting  for  mission  stations 
in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  He  will  soon  start  for  Idaho  and 
Oregon.  Dr.  Jackson  is  worth  more  to  Colorado  than  anyone 
of  its  richest  gold  or  silver  mines. 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  borders  of  Mexico  to  Sitka,  in 
Alaska,  but,  if  Dr.  Cuyler  had  known  all,  he  would  have 
added  this,  also,  for  it  too  was  included  in  the  itineraries 
of  that  busy,  eventful  year. 

It  is  easy  to  criticise  such  adventures  as  we  have  de- 
scribed as  rash  and  injudicious,  but  those  who  have  lived 
amid  such  spiritual  destitutions  as  Sheldon  Jackson  and 
his  associates  sought  to  relieve,  know  and  appreciate  the 
value  of  prompt  action  at  any  cost  of  hardship  or  labour. 
As  one  has  put  it, — "The  men  who  observe  the  wind  and 
regard  the  clouds  and  consult  their  comfort  are  not  the 
men  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  'regions  beyond.'  The 
men  who  are  needed  for  such  work  must  be  willing  to  en- 
dure hardship,  face  danger,  take  the  chances,  and  attempt 
seeming  impossibilities,  in  the  confident  hope  of  victory 
in  the  end." 

Writing  to  an  Eastern  paper  from  the  San  Juan  region, 

^  In  August,  1889,  Dr.  W.  H.  Boyle,  chairman  of  the  home  mission 
committee  of  the  Presbytery  of  Pueblo,  reported  one  dozen  evangelists 
in  that  field  who  had  received  their  education  at  the  Del  Norte  Presby- 
terian College,  of  which  for  a  time  Dr.  Darley  was  president. 


The    bearer    of    "good    tidings"    to    the    miners    on    the    mountains 

of  Colorado. 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         165 

a  well-knowu  elder  of  one  of  the  Pittsburg  churches,  Ed- 
ward Copley,  says : — 

I  have  been  here  more  than  a  year  without  being  able  to 
attend  divine  service,  the  nearest  preaching  station  being 
Silverton,  twelve  miles  distant.  By  the  zeal  and  foresight  of 
Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson,  the  Presbyterian  denomination  has 
churches  established  at  several  of  the  most  important  points. 
These  are  exerting  a  good  influence  and  are  doing  much  to 
check  forgetfulness  of  God  and  a  disregard  of  His  commands 
and  all  things  sacred.  By  these,  however,  only  a  small  portion 
of  the  population  is  reached  as  yet. 

The  discovery  of  a  rich  bed  of  carbonate  ores,  in  which 
silver  was  the  principal  element,  at  Leadville,  one  hun- 
dred miles  southwest  of  Denver,  in  the  spring  of  1878, 
gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  tide  of  population  which  was 
already  setting  in  strongly  towards  the  state  of  Colorado. 
In  a  few  months,  the  fame  of  this  mining  camp  went 
out  through  all  the  civilized  world,  and  the  rush 
of  visitors  and  prospectors  to  this  place  and  its  im- 
mediate vicinity  was  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the 
country. 

While  journeying  with  a  camping  party,  in  the  summer 
of  1877,  the-  writer  crossed  the  ridge  where  as  yet  this 
priceless  hoard  of  treasure  was  hidden,  and  found  about 
two  dozen  log  huts  amid  the  stumps  of  newly-felled  trees 
and  heaps  of  rubbish  from  partly  opened  mines.  In  a 
little  mon;  than  a  year  from  that  date,  the  hamlet  on  this 
ridge  had  grown  into  a  city  of  from  eight  to  ten  thousand 
inhabitants,  with  banks,  and  schools,  and  churches,  and 
almost  all  the  modern  improvements  of  the  older  cities 
of  tlie  country.  In  the  height  of  its  prosperity,  Leadville 
had  a  permanent  population  of  o\^er  fifteen  thousand,  and 
it  was  estimated  that  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 
persons  had  visited  it  in  a  single  year. 


166  SHELDON  JACKSON 

In  the  midst  of  the  wonderful  excitement  and  frenzied 
activity  which  marked  its  begiuuings,  Sheldon  Jackson 
appeared  and  carefully  looked  over  the  ground  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  work  for  which  he  was  commissioned. 
Securing  the  help  of  Mr.  Harry  L.  Janeway,  a  licentiate 
who  had  just  completed  his  course  at  the  theological 
seminary,  arrangements  were  made  about  the  middle  of 
July  for  regular  preaching  services,  and  on  the  4th  of 
August  following  a  church  was  organized  with  thirteen 
members.  A  suitable  building  was  erected  a  few  months 
later.  In  less  than  four  years  from  its  organization,  this 
church  sent  a  contribution  amounting  to  $9,200  to  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  at  the  date  of  its  fifth 
anniversary  its  total  contributions  amounted  to  the  sum 
of  $26,640.  During  the  same  period,  it  had  received  264 
members  and  reported  at  its  close  a  present  membership 
of  217.  This  mountain  city  has  long  since  settled  down 
to  the  quiet  orderly  ways  of  the  average  Colorado  town, 
but  the  church  which  was  gathered  in  that  memorable 
summer  of  1878  still  holds  on  its  way  and  bears  tes- 
timony to  the  enduring  power  and  sanctifying  influ- 
ence of  Divine  truth.  Its  membership  at  the  present 
time — 1907 — is  147,  while  its  Sabbath -school  has  a  mem- 
bership of  378. 

Dr.  Henry  C.  McCook,  of  Philadelphia,  visited  this 
stirring  city  in  the  summer  of  1879,  and  gave  his  impres- 
sions of  the  work  which  was  being  done  on  the  field  by 
the  representatives  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  a  com- 
munication to  the  public  press  from  which  we  make  the 
following  quotation  : — 

The  Blue  Banner  floats  in  Leadville.  And,  what  is  still 
better,  it  has  its  own  church  fortress  to  float  from  !  It  is  an 
edifice  of  goodly  proportions,  with  seatings  for  from  three  to 
four  hundred.  Its  pine  board  walls  are  yet  unpainted,  the 
windows  are  of  neat  but  cheap  stained  glass,  the  pews  and 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         167 

pulpit  are  in  good  taste  and  modern  style.  Here  comes  the 
missionary  !  He  looks  like  a  boy  :  but  he  has  acquitted  him- 
self like  a  man,  and  with  admirable  modesty,  judgment,  and 
zeal  has  pushed  his  work.  He  bears  the  honoured  name  of 
Janeway, — a  name  that  was  once  at  the  fore  of  our  home  mis- 
sion work.  This  young  brother  finds  that  his  health  requires 
him  to  leave  tliis  field  soon,  and  one  of  our  best  men  should 
be  sent  to  man  the  fort.  Last  winter,  lumber,  nails,  pews,  pul- 
pit, organ,  glass — everything — was  freighted  through  mountain 
snows,  over  mountain  ranges  or  passes.  And  when  the  great 
tide  of  humanity  set  in  towards  Leadville,  with  the  opening 
spring,  the  house  of  God  was  there  to  welcome  and  shelter  the 
worshippers.  Thank  the  God  of  grace  for  the  Christian  love 
which  conceived  and  the  Christian  liberality  which  sustains 
such  enterprises  as  this.  It  is  a  happy  day  when  the  vigour  of 
this  Christian  zeal  for  souls  moves  abreast  of  the  zeal  of  man 
for  worldly  gear.  Such  enterprise  has  placed  the  Presbyterian 
Church  at  the  head  of  the  denominations  in  the  Centennial 
Slate. 


The  Rev.  Dr.  Theodore  Crowl,  another  distinguished 
visitor  to  Colorado  during  the  same  year,  confirms  the 
above  statement  and  gives  a  reason  for  it  from  the  stand- 
point of  an  observer  in  the  Congregational  Church  : — 


"A  few  weeks  ago,"  he  writes,  "I  met  a  clergyman  who 
had  been  sojourning  in  Colorado,  who  said  to  me, — '  Were  I 
a  Presbyterian  I  should  remain  in  Colorado.'  The  reason  as- 
signed by  him  for  this  remark  was,  in  substance,  that  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  had  so  completely  occupied  the  field  that  there 
was  little  room  left  within  the  limits  of  the  state  for  the  Congre- 
gational Church.  '  You  Presbyterians,'  he  said,  '  have  a  major- 
general  in  Sheldon  Jackson.'  I  do  not  suppose  that  it  was  his 
aim  to  exclude  other  churches,  but  this  remark  shows  that  while 
Dr.  Jackson  finds  time  to  interest  the  churches  in  the  East  in 
home  mission  work  he  is  a  most  indefatigable  worker  in  the 
field  committed  to  his  charge.  If  he  finds  time  to  look  after 
Alaska,  it  is  not  because  he  neglects  his  work  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  but  because  of  his  tireless  industry  he  can  accom- 
plish  more    than    two   or   three  synodical  missionaries.     Let 


168  SHELDON  JACKSON 

nothing  be  done  to  discourage  Dr.  Jackson  in  his  great  work. 
He  is  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed." 

"  It  is  too  funny  for  anything,"  writes  a  correspondent  of  the 
Congregatiofialist  and  Boston  Recorder,  "  that  a  missionary 
secretary,  and  a  superintendent  for  Colorado  and  one  for  Utah 
and  that  best  of  territories  perched  upon  the  Rockies,  and  one 
for  the  sunny  slope  should  all  be  confronting  Dr.  Sheldon 
Jackson,  who  for  so  many  years  has  had  it  pretty  much  his 
own  way  out  there,  driving  the  stakes  of  his  Presbyterian  claims 
about  as  soon  as  the  miners  had  driven  theirs.  But  these 
worthy  knights  will  have  to  spur  their  steeds,  for  that  Kit 
Carson  of  Presbyterianism,  as  Dr.  Cuyler  calls  him,  has  cut 
loose  from  his  old  camp  and  has  already  preempted  the  whole 
of  Alaska.  And  when  he  gets  to  the  outermost  tip  of  land  in 
Alaska,  he  will  be  as  far  west  of  Portland,  Oregon,  as  that  city 
is  west  of  its  namesake  in  Maine :  and  then  he  will  probably 
annex  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  establish  a  protectorate  upon 
the  opposite  coast  of  China,  and  Mr.  Gray  of  the  Interior  can't 
help  it." 


This  testimony  to  the  efi&ciency  and  tireless  energy  of 
Sheldon  Jackson  is  specially  valuable,  because  it  is  the 
voluntary  admission  of  contemporaries  and  generous  rivals 
in  the  same  field  of  laboui\ 

From  the  date  of  the  organization  of  the  church  at 
Leadville  until  his  removal  from  Denver,  in  the  sirring 
of  1881,  Dr.  Jackson  gave  almost  the  whole  of  his  time 
to  the  needy  fields  and  new  forms  of  missionary  activity, 
which  were  developing  outside  the  borders  of  Colorado. 
His  term  of  active  labour  in  this  field  was  limited,  there- 
fore, to  a  single  decade  (1870-1880).  During  this  period 
of  pioneer  service  the  number  of  the  churches  was  in- 
creased from  four  to  thirty-eight;  and  at  its  close  the 
Presbytery  of  Colorado  was  divided  by  act  of  the  General 
Assembly  into  the  Presbyteries  of  Denver  and  Pueblo. 
Thus  were  laid  the  foundations  of  a  great  synod,  which 
occupies  the  ground  held  by  the  presbytery  before  its 
division  and  which  has,  within  the  limits  of  the  state,  at 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  COLORADO         169 

the  jDresent  time,  four  presbyteries  and  one  hundred  and 
forty-seven  churches.^ 

The  immediate  successor  of  Dr.  Jackson  in  this  field 
was  the  Rev.  John  G.  Eeid,  one  of  the  younger  mission- 
aries of  the  presbytery,  who  laboured  zealously  and  suc- 
cessfully for  three  years  in  perfecting  the  organizations 
already  formed,  as  well  as  in  the  extension  of  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Gospel  to  the  unreached  masses  and  ''  excep- 
tional populations"  in  the  "regions  beyond."  In  a 
recent  communication,  Mr.  Eeid  gives  his  estimate  of  his 
predecessor  and  the  value  of  his  work  as  follows  : — 

In  my  judgment  the  chief  elements  in  his  career  of  phe- 
nomenal success  were  indomitable  energy,  utter  disregard  of 
obstacles  or  difficulties,  absolute  fearlessness  along  the  line  of 
what  he  saw  to  be  duly,  and  a  consuming  devotion  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  Out  of  the  latter  grew  almost  every 
criticism  that  I  ever  heard  upon  him  or  his  methods.  Such 
mistakes  as  he  may  have  made  in  his  administration  in  those 
early  days  when  he  almost  alone  represented,  and  stood  up  for, 
Presbyterianism  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  must  be  laid  to  the 
charge  of  his  superabundant  zeal.  In  many  important  ele- 
ments, particularly  along  the  line  to  which  God  assigned  him, 
Dr.  Jackson  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States  has  ever  produced.  But  for  his 
indomitalile,  untiring,  self-sacrificing  labours,  the  history  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  region  would  have  been  very  different.  As 
you  and  I  look  back  thirty  years  to  the  "  day  of  small  things" 
we  can  hardly  realize  that  what  we  now  see  in  the  strong 
churches,  with  their  far-reaching  influences  for  God  and  for 
good,  had  so  insignificant  a  beginning.  In  our  early  ministry 
here  we  hoped  for  this  issue.  Dr.  Jackson,  with  the  eye  of 
faith,  "saw  this  day  afar  off," — and  was  not  only  glad,  but 
nerved  and  inspired  to  perfect  those  foundations  which  have 
made  it  possible — actual.     The  preservation  in  permanent  form 

'  In  1899,  Dr.  Wm.  H.  Boyle,  formerly  pastor  of  the  church  of  Colo- 
rado Springs,  wrote,  "The  Presbyterians  hold  Colorado  with  their 
strong  churches  and  have  more  than  one  hundred  mission  stations 
throughout  the  synod. ' ' 


lYO  SHELDON  JACKSON 

of  the  services  which  he  rendered  will  be  a  partial  repayment  of 
the  debt  Presbyterianism  in  the  great  West  owes  to  him  and 
his  memory. 

The  Church  in  whose  interests  these  early  pioneers  of 
the  Cross  laboured  so  zealously  has  been  greatly  favoured 
in  having  as  their  successor  the  Eev.  Thomas  C.  Kirk- 
wood,  D.  D.,  who  has  supplemented  their  work  through 
a  period  of  more  than  twenty-one  years,  with  wisdom, 
fidelity,  and  eminent  success.  Under  his  able  and  effi- 
cient administration  Presbyterianism  is  still  foremost 
among  all  the  agencies  for  good  within  the  limits  of  this 
richly  dowered  and  rapidly  growing  Centennial  State. 


IX 

PIONEER  WORK  IN  WYOMING  AND  MONTANA 

"The  secret  of  life  is  not  to  do  what  one  likes,  but  to  try  to  like 
that  which  one  has  to  do,  and  one  does  like  it — in  time." 

— Dinah  Muloch  Craik. 

THE  territory  of  Wyoming  came  into  prominence 
in  the  early  days  of  exploration  and  emigra- 
tion, mainly  because  it  afforded  the  most  avail- 
able thoroughfare,  by  way  of  the  North  Platte  and 
Laramie  Plateau,  from  the  plains  to  the  Pacific  slope. 
The  Indian  trail  which  led  across  the  southern  portion  of 
the  territory  to  the  cafions  of  Utah,  gave  place  to  the 
Overland  Stage  Eoute,  and  this  again  to  the  Union 
Pacific  Eailroad,  which  followed  the  same  general  course 
across  the  mountains. 

In  this  rugged  region  there  are  but  few  streams  and  no 
navigable  rivers,  and  hence  the  towns  grew  up  in  favour- 
able locations  along  the  line  of  the  railroads.  The  main 
dependence  of  the  settlers,  early  and  late,  has  been  on 
grazing  or  the  development  of  its  mineral  resources. 
While  rich  in  coal  and  other  minerals  which  await  their 
appointed  time  for  utilization,  the  gold  mines  of  the 
territory,  once  so  promising,  especially  in  the  Sweetwater 
country  and  the  Black  Hills,  did  not  prove  to  be  so  rich 
or  so  extensive  as  the  indications  seemed  to  warrant  in 
the  early  days  of  its  occupation. 

For  these  reasons,  the  population  of  Wyoming  has  been 
slow  of  growth  and  the  mission  work  within  its  borders 
has  been  limited  to  its  prosijcrous  towns  along  the  line  of 

171 


172  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  railroads  or  in  the  chief  centres  of  its  mining  opera- 
tions among  the  mountains. 

The  churches  of  Cheyenne,  Eawlins,  and  Laramie,  on 
the  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  Eailroad,  were  organized,  as 
already  stated,  in  the  summer  of  1869.  After  his  removal 
to  Denver,  the  superintendent  made  frequent  trips  to 
these  places,  in  the  interests  of  the  churches  already  es- 
tablished, as  well  as  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  and 
developing  other  points  which  for  the  time,  at  least, 
needed  the  uplifting  and  transforming  influences  of  the 
Gospel.  By  the  assumption  of  personal  responsibility 
and  by  persistent  appeals  to  individuals  and  the  Church 
at  large,  he  secured  funds  for  the  erection  of  houses  of 
worship  at  each  of  the  places  where  churches  were  organ- 
ized, and  supplies  for  each  point  occupied,  also,  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment. 

The  church  at  Eawlins  was  the  first  of  this  group  to 
enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  house  of  worship.  This  build- 
ing, an  attractive  frame  in  Gothic  style,  with  a  seat- 
ing capacity  for  about  three  hundred  persons,  was  ordered 
in  Chicago,  and  was  shipped  in  sections  so  that  it  could 
be  put  together  as  a  whole  on  the  ground  it  was  to  occupy. 
Early  in  the  month  of  March,  the  work  was  completed 
and  Sheldon  Jackson  was  summoned  from  Council  Bluffs, 
over  700  miles  away,  to  take  part  in  its  dedication.  The 
setting  apart  of  this  building  among  the  bleak  mountains 
of  the  great  dividing  ridge  of  the  continent  to  the  worship 
of  Almighty  God,  was  an  incident  of  more  than  ordinary 
interest.  The  building  itself,  a  growth  of  marvellous 
rapidity,  was  the  first  Presbyterian  house  of  worship  in 
the  three  great  contiguous  territories  of  Wyoming,  Mon- 
tana, and  Utah.  It  was  the  first  of  its  kind,  also,  along 
the  line  of  the  Transcontinental  Railway,  from  the  valley 
of  the  Missouri  Eiver  to  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento,  on 
the  Pacific  slope. 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  WYOMING         1Y3 

To  those  who  loved  the  ways  of  Zion,  the  sight  of  this 
goodly  structure,  with  its  homelike  appoiutmeuts  aud  its 
spire  pointing  heavenward,  was  a  joy  and  inspiration. 

The  day  of  the  dedication  was  cold  and  stormy.  Drift- 
ing snows  obstructed  the  pathways  aud  piercing  winds 
swept  fiercely  along  the  hillsides  ;  but  despite  these  hin- 
drances and  discomforts  the  people  came  from  near  and 
far  to  attend  the  service. 

From  Fort  Steele,  fifteen  miles  distant,  came  a  company 
of  United  States  soldiers,  headed  by  their  chaplain  ;  and 
there  were  others  who  travelled  twenty  miles  to  have  the 
privilege  of  once  more  worshipping  God  after  the  manner 
of  their  fathers. 

A  correspondent  of  the  PJiiladelpMa  Presbyterian  gives 
an  incident  in  connection  with  the  account  of  this  service, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  a  fitting  sequel. 

"Just  at  the  time,"  he  writes,  "when  these  pleasant  things 
were  transpiring  in  this  far  Western  town,  a  member  of  an 
Eastern  church  had  his  thoughts  largely  directed  to  the  subject 
of  church  extension,  as  possibly  affecting  himself  Consulting 
with  his  pastor  and  the  members  of  the  session,  they  too  were 
imbued  with  his  spirit.  The  result  was  the  voting  by  the 
church  of  $i,ooo  yearly  for  the  support  of  a  missionary  on  the 
frontier.  But  the  interest  did  not  end  here:  it  continued  to 
grow,  and  ere  long  an  additional  subscription  amounting  to 
$800  was  devoted  to  the  same  purpose,  with  a  view  to  adding 
another  worker  to  the  posts  on  the  frontier.  To  give  direction 
to  these  generous  gifts,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  sent  for  and  he 
laid, — as  he  only  could — the  field  and  the  work  to  be  done 
before  them.  Ere  the  evening  was  over,  they  unanimously 
voted  to  send  a  man  to  occupy  the  new  church  at  Rawlins, 
with  the  understanding  that  Laramie,  twenty  miles  farther 
east,  was  to  be  included  in  his  pastorate." 

This  generous  provision — it  may  be  added — was  made 
by  the  Brainard  Church  of  Easton,  Pa.  The  name  of  the 
missionary  who  was   commissioned  for  this  field  was 


174  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Franklin  L.  Arnold  ;  and  there  were  few  of  our  mission- 
aries on  the  frontier  who  have  had  a  better  record  for 
ability,  faithfulness,  and  unselfish  devotion  to  the  re- 
sponsible work  committed  to  his  hands. 

Writing  to  Dr.  Jackson,  in  response  to  a  kind  letter  of 
sympathy  from  him  after  her  father's  death,  his  daughter, 
Mrs.  Charles  Stone,  says  : — 

Among  the  memories  of  childhood  your  loved  presence  in 
our  home  stands  out  distinctly,  and  though  we  have  not 
chanced  to  meet  for  many  years,  your  voice  and  face  are  very 
clear  to  me.  How  we  children  looked  forward  to  your  visits, 
and  how  happy  my  dear  parents  always  were  in  them  !  Every 
step  of  your  useful  life  has  been  followed  by  us  with  a  feeling 
of  proprietorship,  and  dear  papa's  prayers  were  often  raised  to 
God's  throne  for  your  work. 

In  touches  such  as  these  the  secret  of  leadership  and 
influence  among  men  is  clearly  revealed. 

In  the  autumn  of  1870  a  manse  was  erected  at  Laramie, 
and,  in  the  following  year,  an  effort  was  made  to  secure 
funds  for  a  house  of  worship.  The  success  of  this  move- 
ment was  assured  by  the  timely  assistance  of  Mrs.  Daniel 
Parish,  of  New  York  City,  who  contributed  a  memorial 
offering  of  $3,000  for  this  purpose,  and  afterwards  added 
to  this  generous  gift  an  organ  and  a  communion  service. 
As  a  finishing  touch  to  this  good  work,  her  husband 
placed  a  clear  toned  bell  in  the  tower  of  the  church.  It 
was  dedicated  by  Dr.  Jackson,  the  pastor,  and  by  others 
on  the  4th  of  February,  1872. 

The  foundation  for  a  house  of  worship  at  Cheyenne  was 
laid  in  the  autumn  of  1869,  but  owing  to  some  unexpected 
delays  the  building  was  not  completed  until  late  in  the 
spring  of  1870.  It  was  dedicated  on  the  16th  of  July. 
At  this  service,  Sheldon  Jackson  preached  the  sermon, 
and  the  pastor,  Eev.  Wm.  G.  Kephart,  offered  the  dedi- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  WYOMING  175 

catory  prayer.  It  appears  from  the  record  of  this  event 
that  a  collection  was  taken  at  this  service  which  was  suf- 
ficient to  free  the  church  from  all  indebtedness.  Strictly 
speaking,  this  was  true.  There  was  a  claim,  however, 
which  was  not  considered,  because  it  was  regarded  by  all 
to  be  unlawful  and  unjust,  which  afterwards  brought  the 
superintendent  of  this  field  into  a  very  embarrassing  situa- 
tion. The  facts  relating  to  this  claim  have  been  briefly 
stated  as  follows  : — 

''In  the  contract  for  the  building  of  the  church,  it  was 
stipulated  that  it  should  be  ceiled  or  plastered,  according 
to  the  wish  of  the  trustees  as  the  work  advanced.  The 
contractor  sent  on  a  portion  of  the  ceiling,  which,  when 
the  trustees  decided  in  favour  of  plastering,  he  sold  to  a 
resident  of  Cheyenne.  The  trustees  went  on  and  had  the 
house  plastered  and  in  the  final  settlement  offered  the 
voucher  of  the  plastering  as  so  much  payment  in  making 
up  the  contract  price  of  the  building.  The  builder  re- 
fused to  accept  it,  but  demanded  the  same  amount  as  if  he 
himself  had  paid  the  plasterer.  This  the  trustees  refused 
to  pay,  as  it  would  mean  paying  twice  for  the  same 
thing."  Thus  the  matter  ran  on  until  the  spring  of  1871. 
When  the  General  Assembly  met  at  Chicago,  Mr.  Bridges, 
the  builder  of  the  church,  finding  Mr.  Jackson  at  its  ses- 
sions, had  him  arrested  for  the  debt  and  bound  over  to  ap- 
pear at  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  court  in  Chicago. 
The  case  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  attorneys,  to  whom 
were  given  all  the  papers,  including  contracts,  vouchers, 
etc.  Unfortunately,  these  papers  were  all  destroyed  in 
the  great  Chicago  fire,  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  and  no  de- 
fense was  available  to  disprove  the  claim,  except  such  as 
might  be  obtained  from  witnesses  over  one  tliousaiid  miles 
away.  Under  these  circumstances,  Mr.  Jackson's  attor- 
neys advised  him  to  pay  the  bill,  and  thus  save  the  im- 
position of  further  costs.     The  amount  of  the  bill  was 


176  SHELDON  JACKSON 

about  $500,  and,  as  the  church  was  unable  to  pay  it,  and 
the  suit  was  in  his  name,  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  the 
money  to  satisfy  the  claim.  Before  the  payment  was 
made,  the  amount  was  reduced  through  an  arrangement 
made  by  his  attorney  in  Chicago  to  $300  and  costs.  At  a 
later  date,  this  sum  was  collected  and  repaid  to  Dr.  Jack- 
son by  some  of  his  personal  friends. 

Thus,  to  the  other  extraordinary  experiences  of  this 
pioneer  missionary  service,  was  added  an  arrest  by  an 
officer  of  the  law  for  the  Gospel's  sake.  In  the  spring  of 
1871,  Dr.  Jackson  visited  Evanston,  a  growing  town  near 
the  border  line  of  Utah,  and  after  a  thorough  canvass  of 
the  place  held  a  service  in  a  hall  over  a  saloon.  Early 
in  July  of  the  same  year,  a  church  was  organized  at  this 
place,  which  was  supplied  at  regular  intervals  during  the 
remainder  of  the  year  by  the  Eev.  Mr.  Arnold,  of 
Laramie.  Meanwhile,  sufficient  funds  had  been  secured 
to  erect  a  comfortable  house  of  worship,  which  was  finished 
January  1,  1872,  and  was  dedicated  on  the  28th  of  April 
following.  For  the  reasons  already  given,  the  way  was 
not  clear  for  the  organization  of  any  additional  churches  in 
the  territory  during  the  continuance  of  Sheldon  Jackson's 
superintendency  of  the  work  of  the  synod. 

At  the  second  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  Wyoming  at 
Laramie,  February  3,  1872,  the  following  action  was 
taken : — 

We,  the  members  of  the  Presbytery  of  Wyoming,  take  this 
opportunity  of  expressing  our  appreciation  and  entire  satisfac- 
tion with  the  work  and  services  of  Brother  Jackson,  superin- 
tendent of  missions  in  the  large  and  interesting  field  over 
which  he  is  placed,  and  particularly  over  that  within  the  bounds 
of  our  presbytery.  We  take  pleasure  in  endorsing  his  work, 
and  hereby  tender  our  thanks  for  the  timely  assistance  which 
he  has  been  instrumental  in  giving  to  our  weak  and  struggling 
churches,  his  careful  oversight  and  watchfulness,  his  untiring 
zeal,  encouragement,  and  judicious  counsel  to  our  ministers  and 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA         1Y7 

people ;  and,  further,  we  recommend  that  he  be  reappointed 
superintendent  of  missions  for  the  same  field,  for  the  ensuing 
year. 

Than  this,  from  his  brethren  and  associates  in  the  field, 
no  commendation  of  his  work  could  be  more  hearty,  and 
no  summary  of  this  work  for  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the 
territory  of  Wyoming  could  be  more  complete. 

Montana 

The  territory  of  Montana,  which  ranked  with  the 
largest,  richest,  and  most  productive  divisions  of  the 
Eocky  Mountain  system,  was  greatly  hindered  in  its 
development  for  nearly  two  decades  after  its  organiza- 
tion, by  its  isolation  from  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the 
outside  world.  From  the  first  inrush  of  settlers,  on  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  1862,  to  the  completion  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad,  in  1869,  Helena,  which  afterwards  be- 
came the  seat  of  government,  was  a  thousand  miles  from 
any  railroad  station  or  seacoast  port. 

From  this  date,  also,  until  the  completion  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  and  the  Utah  Northern,  in  1881,  the 
nearest  point  of  communication  by  rail  with  Helena  was 
about  five  hundred  miles.  This  was  the  period  of  stage- 
coach and  lumber- wagon  transportation  and  civilization  : 
and  but  for  the  lure  of  gold  this  "gem  of  the  moun- 
tains" would  have  been,  through  this  time  of  isolation, 
only  a  hunting-ground  for  the  few  :  and  to  the  many  a 
terra  incognita.  During  the  entire  period  of  his  labours 
in  and  for  Montana,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  handicapped 
by  these  hindrances  to  rapid  development ;  but  he  saw  in 
advance  the  better  day  which  improved  facilities  of 
travel  was  certain  to  bring,  and  patiently  prepared  the 
way  for  it.  Unlike  the  territory  of  Wyoming,  this  was  a 
goodly  land  throughout  its  whole  extent :  a  domain  larger 


178  SHELDON  JACKSON 

thau  all  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  with  broad,  rich  val- 
leys and  a  dozen  rivers  coursing  through  them,  larger 
and  more  beautiful  than  the  Mohawk  and  Juniata  ;  giving 
promise  of  unlimited  water-power  for  manufactures  and 
facilities  for  irrigation.  Its  rugged  hillsides  were  covered 
with  a  dense  growth  of  fir,  cedar,  and  pine ;  its  mines 
ranked  with  the  richest  and  most  celebrated  in  the  world, 
and  its  upland  pasture  ranges  were  capable  of  sustaining 
vast  flocks  and  herds  throughout  the  entire  winter  season, 
in  good  condition,  without  housing  or  other  food  than 
that  which  they  croj^ped  from  the  ground  for  their  daily 
needs.  In  the  light  of  its  present  development,  it  is  ap- 
parent to  the  man  of  dullest  vision  that  Montana  was 
worth  to  the  land  and  to  the  Church  of  God  a  thousand- 
fold more  than  it  cost  in  toil  and  treasure  in  the  early 
days  of  its  discovery  and  settlement. 

The  pioneer  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Montana  was  George  Grantham  Smith.  He  was  sent  out 
by  the  Committee  of  Home  Missions  (New  School),  of 
which  Dr.  H.  Kendall  was  then  the  secretary.  He 
reached  Bannock,  Idaho,  in  June,  1864,  but  his  trunk, 
which  was  forwarded  by  freight,  did  not  reach  him  until 
eighteen  months  after  his  arrival. 

His  stage  fare  from  the  Missouri  Eiver  to  Bannock  was 
$425,  and  $75  additional  to  Virginia  City,  Montana,  where 
he  spent  a  portion  of  his  time.  Finding  that  his  board 
at  the  hotel  would  cost  him  $1,200  in  greenbacks  for 
twelve  months,  he  decided  to  board  himself  and  did  his 
own  cooking  and  washing  in  a  log  cabin  twelve  by  eight- 
een feet,  with  a  single  pane  of  glass  for  a  window.  A 
bed  tick  and  pillow,  of  coarse  factory  stuff  which  he 
filled  with  dried  hay,  cost  him  $28,  and  at  one  time  the 
market  price  of  flour  was  $500  per  barrel.  At  Virginia 
City,  he  organized  the  first  public  schools,  opened  Sun- 
day-schools, conducted  regular  prayer-meeting  services. 


PIONEER  WOllK  IN  MONTANA  179 

preached  as  lie  bad  opportimity,  married  aud  buried  tbe 
people,  and  was  instrumental  in  closing  all  places  of  busi- 
ness on  the  Sabbath.  He  did  not  attempt  to  organize 
churches,  for  the  reason  that  no  Mission  Board  then  in 
existence  could  maintain  a  missionary  at  a  cost,  for  living 
expenses  alone,  of  $5,000  a  year.  In  1866,  Mr.  Smith 
left  Montana  by  way  of  Fort  Benton  aud  the  Missouri 
River. 

Three  years  later,  Sheldon  Jackson  made  his  first  visit 
to  Helena,  over  the  stage  route  from  Corinne  in  Utah, 
and  organized  a  church  of  twelve  members.  Refer- 
ring to  his  visit,  the  Rev.  T.  V.  Moore,  author  of  the 
"■  History  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Montana," 
says: — 

Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  is  the  father  of  organized  and 
permanent  Presbyterianisra  in  Montana.  The  first  congrega- 
tion he  gathered  in  Helena  was  indeed  a  lonely  little  flock. 
There  was  not  another  church  (except  Indian  missions)  of  the 
same  denomination  in  a  region  stretching  westward  to  Port- 
land, Oregon,  southward  to  Cheyenne,  eastward  to  the 
churches  of  Minnesota,  and  northward  to  the  pole.  Dr.  Jack- 
son wrote  at  the  time  that  there  was  not  another  Presbyterian 
church  within  a  thousand  miles  of  it. 

When  Mr.  Jackson  returned  to  Montana,  in  May,  1872 — 
three  years  later — four  ministers  had  been  found  to  come  here, 
three  young  men,  the  Rev.  James  R.  Russel  (now  city  libra- 
rian of  Butte,  Montana),  Rev.  Wm.  S.  Frackleton,  and 
Rev.  Wm.  C.  Rommell,  and  one  older  man.  Rev.  Lyman  B. 
Crittenden,  all  of  them  Princeton  Seminary  men.  They  were 
authorized  ^y  the  General  Assembly,  in  session  at  Detroit 
during  the  same  month,  to  plant,  not  a  church  only,  but  a 
presbytery  in  Montana.  Mr.  Rommel  did  not  arrive  until 
autumn.  The  other  three,  with  the  indefatigable  Sheldon 
Jackson,  proceeded  to  organize  churches  in  Gallatin  City, 
May  30,  1872;  Bozeraan,  June  2d;  Hamilton,  June  3d; 
Virginia  City,  June  5th;  Deer  Lodge,  June  9th;  Missoula, 
June  1 2th;  and  Helena,  June  15th, — seven  churches  in  sixteen 
days. 


180  SHELDON  JACKSON 

As  an  illustration  of  the  diverse  elements  in  these 
newly  gathered  churches,  the  same  writer  says,  ''In  its 
early  years,  the  church  of  Helena  had  communicants  from 
both  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  (North  and 
South)  ;  from  the  United  Presbyterian  church ;  the  Es- 
tablished and  Free  churches  of  Scotland  ;  the  Presbyterian 
churches  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Canada,  besides  Congre- 
gationalists,  Methodists,  Baptists,  DisciiDles  of  Christ, 
Episcopalians,  Lutherans  (German  and  Scandinavian), 
Mormons,  Dunkards,  and  Quakers." 

The  first  of  this  group  of  churches  to  secure  a  church 
building  was  Deer  Lodge,  under  the  leadership  of 
Eev.  James  Russel,  in  1874.  The  first  service  in  this 
building  was  held  February  21,  1875. 

The  missionary  tour  which  resulted  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  above  mentioned  churches,  with  its  detours 
and  zigzags,  included  a  round  of  about  5,000  miles. 
While  varied  by  many  agreeable  and  interesting  inci- 
dents and  experiences,  it  was  nevertheless  a  severe  test 
of  grit  and  endurance,  as  well  as  of  courage  and  fidelity. 
There  were  nine  passengers  inside  the  coach  which  started 
northward  from  Corinne  and  several  on  the  outside.  As 
one  has  put  it, — the  miseries,  torture,  and  living  death  of 
a  night  ride  in  a  crowded  stage  must  be  experienced  to 
be  known.  In  this  case,  however,  there  were  four  suc- 
cessive nights  and  five  days  of  tossing  and  jolting,  for  the 
coach  was  thirty-six  hours  behind  time.  The  route  led 
up  the  Malad  valley  through  camps  of  Shoshone  Indians 
and  Mormon  settlements  up  to  the  snow  line  and  beyond 
the  Divide  into  the  territory  of  Idaho.  Before  nightfall, 
the  coach  passed  through  an  encampment  of  one  hundred 
lodges  of  Snake  Indians.  At  the  rude  halting-place  for 
supper,  a  hoarse  cry  of  "  murder,"  followed  by  the  thud  of 
heavy  blows,  was  heard.  When  the  passengers  rushed 
to  the  door  of  the  room  adjoining  to  ascertain  the  cause 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA         181 

of  tills  outcry,  they  were  confronted  with  drawn  revolvers 
to  prevent  interference  in  the  bloody  strife. 

At  its  close,  the  vanquished  comrade  was  borne  away, 
with  broken  ribs  and  a  bruised  and  sadly  disfigured  head 
and  face.  At  this  point,  the  stage  was  abandoned,  for 
some  reason  not  given,  and  all  the  baggage,  mail,  and  ex- 
press packages,  were  piled  into  a  lumber  wagon,  upon  the 
top  of  which  the  passengers  seated  themselves  as  best  they 
could. 

In  this  decidedly  uncomfortable  fashion  they  rode  until 
midnight,  in  a  cold  drizzling  rain,  when  their  progress 
was  interrupted  by  a  rushing  stream  from  which  the 
bridge  had  been  swept  away  a  little  while  before.  As 
soon  as  possible,  a  log  raft  was  constructed  which  floated 
three  or  four  trunks  and  as  many  passengers  at  a  trip. 
As  soon  as  all  were  over,  the  journey  was  resumed.  On 
the  third  day,  the  summit  of  the  main  range  was  reached 
by  a  pass  of  easy  grade  which  led  from  Idaho  into  Mon- 
tana. Here  a  network  of  little  brooks  was  crossed  which 
joined  at  lower  levels  to  form  the  most  remote  sources  of 
the  Missouri  Eiver. 

At  a  station  of  the  company,  where  two  stage  lines  came 
together,  the  weary  passengers  camped  out  for  a  few 
hours  of  the  night  under  blankets  in  the  freight  wagons. 
The  night  was  uncomfortably  cold,  and  when  the  super- 
intendent of  the  line  came  along  with  an  extra  coach  at 
11  P.  M.,  there  was  greatjoy  among  the  campers.  Thence 
to  Bannock,  the  journey  was  made  with  comparative  com- 
fort and  accelerated  speed.  On  the  fifth  day,  Helena,  the 
destination  of  the  little  party,  was  reached.  Three  days 
later.  Dr.  Jackson  took  the  coach  for  Gallatin,  starting  at 
3  o'clock,  A.  M.,  and  arriving  at  6  p.  m. 

This  early  morning  hour  seems  to  have  been  the  usual 
time  for  the  start  on  moat  of  llie  all-day  journeys  which 
were  made  on  these  missionary  touis.     This  trip  included 


182  SHELDON  JACKSON 

liiindreds  of  miles  of  travel,  all  of  which  were  made  by 
stage-coach,  excei)t  a  stretch  of  eighteen  miles  on  foot  and 
a  carriage  ride  of  half  a  day. 

On  the  evening  of  his  return  to  Helena,  Saturday,  June 
15th,  Dr.  Jackson  attended  a  business  meeting  of  the 
Presbyterians  in  the  court-house.  At  this  meeting,  the 
church  was  reorganized  and  two  elders  were  elected. 
The  next  day  these  representatives  of  the  congregation 
were  ordained  and  installed.  On  Monday  evening,  Dr. 
Jackson  preached  the  opening  sermon  ofthe  newly  erected 
Presbytery  of  Montana  and  was  elected  its  first  moderator. 
This  was  literally  a  "carpet-bag"  presbytery.  It  came 
into  the  territory  with  this  missionary  bishop  whose  pres- 
ence was  necessary  to  make  up  a  quorum,  and  its  pro- 
spective membership  shared  many  of  his  hardships  by  the 
way  up  to  this  point. 

Leaving  each  of  his  associates  in  charge  of  two  or  more 
churches  or  outstations  he  again  took  the  coach,  which 
had  been  his  headquarters  for  so  many  weeks,  for  a  dusty 
and  disagreeable  ride  to  Fort  Benton,  140  miles  distant, 
at  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the  Missouri 
Eiver. 

In  a  circular  letter  to  the  children  of  the  Sabbath- 
schools,  Dr.  Jackson  mentions  the  fact  that  at  one  point 
on  this  missionary  tour  through  Montana  he  met  a  Chris- 
tian mother  with  whom  he  had  a  brief  conversation  while 
the  stage  stopped  to  change  horses. 

When  she  learned  that  he  expected  to  preach  and  ad- 
minister the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Sujiper  the  next 
day,  at  a  place  forty  miles  distant,  she  expressed  her  deep 
regret  that  she  had  not  heard  of  this  sooner  that  she  might 
have  arranged  to  go  and  take  her  children  with  her  to 
attend  the  meeting,  that  they  might  have  the  privilege 
of  witnessing  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  a  sacramental 
service.     It  was  in  these  isolated  regions  that  many  an 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA  183 

exile  from  spiritual  privileges  in  the  New  "West  remem- 
bered Ziou  aud  longed  for  the  coming  of  the  herald  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  establishment  of  the  Church  in  which  they 
might  worship  God  after  the  manner  of  their  fathers. 

At  each  point  which  he  visited  on  this  tour,  Dr.  Jack- 
son's work  was  commented  upon  by  the  public  press 
with  favour  :  and  in  several  instances  highly  appreciative 
notices  of  his  sermons  and  his  efforts  to  establish  churches 
in  Montana  were  published. 

One  or  two  extracts  may  suffice  to  show  the  spirit  of 
these  notices : — 

The  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  superintendent  of  missions  for 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  preached  in  the  court-house  last 
Sunday  evening.  The  house  was  filled  with  attentive  listen- 
ers, who  were  well  pleased  with  the  sermon.  Indeed,  we  have 
seldom  seen  an  audience  evince  a  greater  interest  in  a  religious 
service.  The  reverend  gentleman  will  be  certain  to  meet  a 
hearty  welcome  whenever  he  may  find  it  convenient  to  visit 
us.  — Deer  Lodge  Independent. 

"Sheldon  Jackson,"  writes  the  correspondent  of  a  Virginia 
city  paper,  "  is  a  fluent,  pleasing  and  earnest  speaker,  and  we 
think  just  the  right  sort  of  a  man  to  successfully  establish  and 
maintain  the  churches  of  his  denomination  in  our  mountain 
country."  "  In  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,"  writes  still  another 
correspondent,  "  the  Presbyterians  have  a  man  who  worthily 
magnifies  his  office.  One  would  think  this  field  big  enough  for 
a  half  dozen  of  bishops,  and  quite  too  big  for  one  man  to  keep 
pace  with  its  growth.  But  if  the  record  of  the  past  twenty  days 
is  a  fair  specimen  of  his  powers,  he  will  provide  all  these  states 
and  territories  with  churches  as  fast  as  they  are  needed.  He 
also  edits  the  Rocky  Mountain  Presbyteriafi.  At  that  rate,  the 
Methodists  will  have  to  look  out  for  their  prestige." 


The  return  journey  by  steamboat  from  Fort  Benton,  at 
the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Missouri  River,  to  Sioux 
City,  Iowa,  is  described  in  Dr.  Jackson's  notes  as  "a  wild 
romantic  ride  of  ten  days,   during  which  the  boat  was 


184  SHELDON  JACKSON 

twice  on  fire."  At  one  point  the  steamer  was  delayed  for 
some  time  by  a  large  herd  of  buffalo  whick  were 
swimming  across  the  river.  The  distance  between  the 
above-mentioned  points  by  the  river's  course  is  two  thou- 
sand miles,  one-half  of  which  was  through  a  wilderness 
region,  aboundiug  in  game  of  all  sorts,  where  thousands 
of  Indians  roamed  at  will  and  claimed  the  privilege  of  do- 
ing as  they  listed  throughout  its  vast  extent.  The. only 
signs  of  civilization  along  this  part  of  the  route  were  oc- 
casional clearings,  at  long  intervals,  occupied  by  United 
States  forts,  or  stockade  trading- posts.  Many  of  the 
passengers  on  the  boat,  as  it  followed  its  course  down  the 
stream,  were  on  the  alert  for  game,  within  sight  and 
range,  and  the  crack  of  rifles  was  heard  almost  continu- 
ously at  some  points  of  the  journey  during  the  daytime. 
On  the  trip  made  by  this  boat  up  the  river,  ''  eleven  buffa- 
loes, a  bear,  and  a  score  of  mountain -sheep,  deer,  and 
lesser  game,  were  taken."  At  frequent  intervals  large 
bands  of  Indians,  whose  camps  were  near  by,  flocked  to 
the  river's  bank  to  see  the  boat  pass.  On  one  occasion 
"they  showed  their  friendly  feeling  by  firing  into  the 
boat."  "Perhaps,"  as  the  narrator  naively  adds,  "this 
was  done  for  the  fun  of  seeing  the  passengers  scatter  and 
dodge."  At  Fort  Benton,  there  were  at  this  time  about 
one  hundred  inhabitants,  besides  Indians,  half-breeds, 
and  a  company  of  United  States  soldiers. 

The  fort  was  built  in  1846,  but,  so  far  as  known,  from 
that  date  until  1872  no  Protestant  minister  had  ever 
preached  at  the  place.  For  some  months  before  Dr. 
Jackson  came,  two  earnest  Christian  women  had  kept  up 
a  Sabbath  service  and  had  prevailed  upon  their  husbands 
to  take  turns  at  reading  a  printed  sermon.  He  would 
gladly  have  availed  himself  of  the  privilege  of  preaching 
the  Gospel  to  this  little  company,  but  the  boat  was  await- 
ing the  arrival  of  the  stage-coach  by  which  he  came.    He 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA  185 

did  have  the  opportunity,  however,  to  preach  to  the 
motley  assembly  which  gathered  on  the  deck  of  the 
steamboat  the  next  day.  A  continuous  journey  of  two 
days  by  rail,  after  landing  at  Sioux  City,  brought  this 
long  journey  to  an  end.  "It  was  a  joui^ney,"  as  he  ex- 
presses it,  "of  great  hardships  and  many  dangers;  of 
long  weeks  with  their  days  of  toil  and  nights  of  suffering  ; 
and  yet  the  hardships  were  more  than  compensated  by 
the  spiritual  joy  of  founding  gospel  institutions  which 
shall  assist  in  moulding  the  rising  public  sentiment  of 
that  beautiful  teiTitory,  so  soon  to  be  the  home  of  tens 
and  hundi-eds  of  thousands." 

One  of  the  institutions  included  in  the  foregoing  state- 
ment was  the  Gallatin  Female  Seminary,  founded  by  the 
Eev.  Lyman  B.  Crittenden,  soon  after  his  arrival  in  the 
territory.  His  daughter,  Miss  Mary  G.  Crittenden,  ren- 
dered efiicient  service  as  the  principal  of  this  seminary. 
In  the  early  days  of  its  existence,  when  the  hindrances 
connected  with  its  continuance  seemed  to  be  almost  insur- 
mountable, Sheldon  Jackson  came  to  the  rescue  and  from 
personal  friends  and  well-wishers  secured  money  and 
equipments  for  its  support  and  enlargement. 

This  pioneer  school  was  one  of  the  "  seed-sowing  insti- 
tutions" of  the  land,  aud  is  now  under  the  care  of  the 
synod,  which  holds  the  ground  once  occupied  by  this 
feeble  j)resbytery. 

The  third  and  last  ofadal  visit  made  by  the  superintend- 
ent to  Montana  was  in  the  summer  of  1878.  His  ex- 
periences on  this  trip  were  similar  to  those  on  the  former 
journeys.  At  this  date  the  territory  was  still  isolated 
from  the  outside  world,  and  the  only  way  to  enter  it, — ex- 
cept by  the  long  river  route — or  to  journey  through  it, 
was  by  the  lumbering  coach  of  the  former  days. 

With  respect  to  the  character  of  work  in  this  field  and 
his    intense    zeal    for    its    accomiilishmeut,    Dr.    D.   J. 


186  SHELDON  JACKSON 

McMillan,  ex-secretary  of  the  Home  Board,  and  the  suc- 
cessor of  Dr.  Jackson  in  the  Montana  field,  says  : — 

Some  of  his  alleged  mistakes  have  proved  to  be  great  suc- 
cesses. He  was  severely  criticised  for  organizing  a  church  at 
Bozeman  with  six  members  :  and  another  at  Missoula  with  two. 
But  he  knew,  as  few  if  any  others  knew,  what  he  was  doing. 
They  were  indeed  feeble  outposts,  but  they  were  claim-stakes, 
like  the  cross  erected  by  Columbus  on  San  Salvador,  a  procla- 
mation to  the  world  that  the  land  was  claimed  for  Christ. 
Those  feeble  beginnings  in  Montana  are  now  strong  and  influ- 
ential churches. 

His  endurance  in  the  days  of  his  prime  was  phenomenal.  I 
have  known  him  to  preach  three  times  in  one  day,  riding 
twenty-five  miles  on  horseback  between  appointments,  and  rise 
next  morning  fresh  and  ready  for  anything.  One  evening  he 
preached  in  Missoula  and  at  the  close  of  service  he  took  the 
stage  for  a  hundred  miles,  over  a  mountain  road — a  steady 
twenty-four  hours'  run — to  Deer  Lodge,  where  he  arrived 
barely  in  time  for  a  service,  which  he  had  announced  for  that 
evening.  He  persuaded  the  driver  to  take  him  directly  to  the 
church,  and,  leaping  from  the  top  of  the  coach  to  the  church 
steps,  entered  it  and  went  through  the  service  without  a  moment 
for  rest  or  refreshment  of  any  kind.  The  statement  made  by 
some  one,  as  illustrating  his  habits  of  industry,  that  he  edited 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Presbyterian  from  the  hurricane  decks  of 
stage-coaches,  was  hardly  an  exaggeration. 

I  have  seen  Dr.  Jackson  sway  vast  assemblies,  and  I  have 
seen  him  where  two  or  three  were  gathered  together  in  humble 
cabins  or  dugouts.  I  have  seen  him  in  some  of  the  high 
places  of  the  earth,  and  I  have  seen  him  sleeping  on  the  ground 
among  the  sage  brush,  and  in  stables  among  the  cattle ;  and 
everywhere  and  always  he  is  the  same  imperturbable,  irrepressi- 
ble, unpretentious  Sheldon  Jackson. 

In  immediate  results,  and  in  some  other  respects,  the 
work  in  Montana  was  more  disappointing  and  discourag- 
ing than  in  other  portions  of  the  Colorado  Synod.  As  the 
advance  agent  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Sheldon  Jack- 
son received  a  cordial  welcome  in  every  part  of  the  terri- 
tory ;  but  he  found  it  impossible,  owing  to  circumstancea 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA  187 

beyond  his  control,  to  make  good  the  plans  he  had  ma- 
tured or  to  meet  the  eugugemeuts  he  had  made  for  the 
supply  of  some  of  the  most  needy  portions  of  the  field. 
After  his  first  visit  to  Helena,  which  was  made  on  his 
own  volition  and  without  expense  to  any  agency  of  the 
church,  he  went  East  to  secure  ministers  for  some  of  the 
most  important  points,  including  the  "lone  church," 
which  he  had  organized  at  Helena,  a  thousand  miles 
from  any  other  of  the  same  name  on  either  side  of  it. 

In  his  quest  for  ministers  after  his  second  trij),  he  was 
successful  beyond  his  expectations,  but  the  volunteers 
who  responded  to  his  call  were  not  sent.  With  the  pass- 
ing of  this  opj)ortunity,  the  blue  banner  which  had  been 
raised  so  confidently  was  allowed  to  droop,  and  at  length 
was  lowered  and  laid  aside  for  lack  of  supporters.  Not 
until  three  years  had  passed  away,  was  it  again  unfurled, 
to  wave  continuously  and  triumphantly  over  this  beauti- 
ful mountain  laud,  until  Christ  shall  come  again. 
Meanwhile  this  dauntless  missionary  continued  to  labour 
in  the  interests  of  that  apparently  forgotten  land.  In 
1870,  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  this  territory:  "I  want 
to  wake  up  the  Board  to  the  importance  of  Mon- 
tana. If  I  could  have  my  own  way  I  should  have  had 
several  Presbyterian  ministers  in  the  field  months  ago.  I 
shall  make  a  new  attemjit  in  the  spring,  and  I  hope  to 
get  there  myself.  But  I  have  been  disappointed  so  often 
that  I  make  no  promises." 

In  the  summer  of  1872,  the  prospects  were  bright  for 
the  speedy  completion  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad. 
Knowing  what  this  meant  to  the  territory  of  Montana, 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  eager  to  preempt  every  strategic 
point  which  was  not  yet  occupied  by  the  other  leading 
denominations.  Hence,  as  already  noted,  seven  churches 
were  organized  during  this  visit.  In  order  to  provide 
for  regular,    or  at  least  occasional,    services  for  these 


188  SHELDON  JACKSON 

churches,  it  was  necessary  to  give  to  each  one  of  the  mis- 
siouaries  then  on  the  ground,  the  care  of  one  or  more 
places  outside  his  special  field,  until  a  larger  force  of  la- 
bourers could  be  secured.  Hence,  the  superintendent 
grouped  the  outlying  stations  with  the  nearest  occupied 
point  within  reach — a  very  long  reach  in  most  cases — and 
these  points  were  named  in  the  commission  of  each  of 
the  ministers  in  charge. 

After  a  brief  period  of  trial,  one  or  two  of  the  mission- 
aries gave  up  the  attempt  to  reach  the  outlying  places  in 
their  district,  mainly  because  of  the  heavy  expense  it  en- 
tailed upon  them.  While  recognizing  the  necessity  for 
doing  this  work,  they  were  emphatic  in  their  contention 
that  the  cost  of  travel  in  reaching  these  points  should  be 
met  by  the  Board,  inasmuch  as  their  salaries,  insufficient 
for  present  needs,  would  not  justify  them  in  making  this 
sacrifice.  On  the  other  hand,  the  superintendent  ascribes 
the  failure  to  meet  these  obligations  to  inexperience  in 
frontier  work.     He  writes  : — 

It  was  true  the  extreme  points  were  one  hundred  miles  apart, but 
there  were  at  that  very  time  a  dozen  missionaries  in  Minnesota, 
Colorado,  and  probably  other  sections  whose  fields  were  equally 
large  and  called  for  as  much  sacrifice  to  supply  them.  It  is  also 
true  that  the  fare  on  a  stage-coach  for  loo  miles  was  beyond  the 
ability  of  the  missionaries  to  pay  regularly  from  their  salaries. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  did  not  need  to  use  the  stages. 
Along  that  line  of  frontier,  ranches  were  frequent,  and  saddle 
horses  were  cheap.  The  missionary  could  have  two  or  three 
regular  preaching  stations  between  his  extreme  points  and  thus 
reduce  a  day's  travel  on  horseback  to  twenty-five  or  thirty- 
three  miles.  And  at  the  close  of  the  day's  ride  he  could  preach 
in  the  log  cabin  of  his  host  to  the  ranchmen  of  that  region.  On 
these  routes  the  people  would  take  care  of  him  and  his  horse 
without  charge.  Not  only  that  but  something  would  be  added 
to  his  salary  by  the  free-will  offerings  of  his  hearers  ;  but,  bet- 
ter still,  the  Gospel  would  be  preached  at  four  or  five  places  in- 
stead of  two. 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA         189 

This  plan  was  in  successful  operation,  at  that  very  time,  both 
in  Minnesota  and  Colorado. 


When  the  aid  asked  from  the  Board  for  these  journeys 
was  refused,  because  of  a  depleted  treasury,  some  of  the 
organizations  were  left  without  preaching  services  or  pas- 
toral care.  For  this  cause,  apparently,  three  churches 
which  were  enrolled  by  the  presbytery  at  its  organization 
lost  their  hold  upon  the  community  and  were  either  dis- 
banded at  a  later  period,  or  reorganized. 

Says  the  Rev.  George  Edwards,  the  historian  of  the 
Synod  of  Montana, — "The  minutes  of  the  General  As- 
sembly show  that  for  several  years  Presbyteriauism  was 
of  very  slow  growth.  The  difficulty  seems  to  have  been  to 
man  the  churches  that  were  organized,  and  this  naturally 
caused  dissatisfaction  and  criticism  on  the  jjart  of  both 
churches  and  presbytery."  From  the  criticism  to  which 
reference  is  here  made,  Dr.  Jackson,  who  was  acting  un- 
der the  instructions  of  the  Board,  was  not  exempt.  In 
one  or  two  instances  also  dissatisfaction,  because  of  sup- 
posed partiality  in  the  distribution  of  work  and  the  as- 
signment of  places,  developed  into  open  antagonism  and 
this,  with  other  matters  to  which  exceptions  were  taken, 
issued,  at  length,  in  a  request  to  the  Home  Board  that 
Dr.  Jackson's  oversight  of  the  mission  work  of  Montana 
should  be  discontinued  and  that  the  presbytery  should 
have  the  privilege  of  planting  and  fostering,  with  the  con- 
tinued support  of  the  Board,  its  own  churches  and  mis- 
sion stations.  This  was  the  act  of  a  body  which  num- 
bered not  many  more  than  the  minimum  of  members 
required  for  a  quorum,  but  it  was  an  official  act  of  a  reg- 
ularly constituted  body  and  as  such  received  careful  and 
respectful  consideration.  A  copy  of  this  action  and 
the  reavSons,  or  specifications  given  for  it,  were  sent  by 
the  secretaries  to  Dr.  Jackson,  with  the  request  that  he 


190  SHELDON  JACKSON 

make  reply  on  his  own  behalf,  a  privilege,  it  seems,  which 
was  not  accorded  to  him  by  the  presbytery  which  initiated 
this  action. 

A  detailed  statement,  correcting  some  misapprehen- 
sions and  covering  the  entire  ground  of  complaint  was 
sent  back  to  the  Board  and  apparently  this  ended  the 
matter  ;  for  Dr.  Jackson's  commission  was  afterwards  re- 
newed in  the  same  terms  as  before  and  included  the  whole 
synod  until  the  mission  field  was  divided  in  1881. 

With  characteristic  frankness  and  candour  he  has 
copied  and  preserved  in  permanent  book  form  all  the 
statements  and  specifications  relating  to  this  complaint 
as  well  as  his  reply  to  the  same.  These  and  other  records 
bearing  upon  the  early  history  of  the  work  in  Montana 
may  be  consulted  in  the  library  of  the  Presbyterial  His- 
torical Society  in  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Aside  from  all  other  considerations  Dr.  Jackson  was 
deeply  grieved  to  learn,  in  this  indirect  way,  that  some  of 
the  young  brethren  whom  he  had  influenced  to  come  to 
this  field,  and  for  whose  success  he  had  laboured,  and 
daily  prayed  for,  should  so  misjudge  his  motives  and  dis- 
credit his  work.  To  one  of  these  brethren,  who  at  an 
earlier  date  had  expressed  a  desire  to  cooperate  with  him 
and  ignore  any  differences  between  them  for  the  work's 
sake,  he  wrote  : — 

"Dear  Brother, — Your  letter  of  the  23d  was  received 
this  morning,  and  I  thank  God  for  it.  I  have  often 
prayed  that  God  would  bring  our  hearts  together  again, 
because  it  seemed  necessary  for  the  prosperity  of  His 
work.  Montana  has  always  been  a  favourite  field  of  mine, 
as  those  who  have  heard  my  public  addresses  will  testify, 
and  those  who  have  been  much  with  me  will  witness.  It 
was  pleading  for  Montana  that  awakened  a  new  mission- 
ary spirit  in  Auburn  Seminary,  when  four  of  the  young 
men  offered  themselves  to  the  Board.     It  has  been  a  con- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  MONTANA  191 

stant  source  of  regret  tliat  circiimstauces  which.  I  could 
not  control  have  prevented,  in  the  x>ast,  the  advancing  of 
our  cause  to  the  extent  I  could  have  wished,  but  I  trust 
that  now  a  brighter  day  is  dawning,  and  that  you  may 
receive  the  needed  reinforcements." 

Elsewhere  he  gives  this  explanation  of  the  fact,  which 
he  frankly  admits,  that  his  visits  to  Montana  were  "  hasty 
and  infrequent," — '' Because  the  Board  would  not  divide 
my  field  I  was  trying  to  cover  the  whole  country  from 
Mexico  to  Canada.  But  while  I  tried  to  improve  every 
moment,  I  did  spend  from  one  day  to  a  week  in  every 
Presbyterian  church  in  the  territory,  excex)t  Missoula,  at 
each  visit  to  the  i^lace.  I  also  kept  informed  of  the  prog- 
ress of  all  sections  of  the  territory,  but  the  Board  had 
refused  to  enlarge  the  work,  and  I  had  not  the  heart  to 
visit  sections  which  were  deprived  of  gospel  privileges 
and  say  to  the  exiled  Presbyterians,  '  Your  church  is  too 
poor  to  help  to  give  you  the  Gospel. ' ' '  The  want  of  greater 
success  during  the  seventies,  he  attributes  to  three  causes, 
viz.  : — 

(1)  The  remoteness  of  the  country  to  the  raikoads,  and 
hence  the  8lo\y  increase  of  population  (not  as  many  in 
1878  as  in  1872). 

(2)  The  general  discouragement  attendant  upon  the 
failure  of  Jay  Cook  and  the  suspension  of  the  building  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  in  consequence  of  which 
many  of  the  best  and  most  enterprising  of  the  population 
left  the  country. 

(3)  The  failure  to  supply  some  of  the  churches  which 
were  organized  with  the  ministrations  of  the  Gospel. 

The  brighter  day,  to  wliich  reference  was  made  in  the 
letter,  above  quoted,  began  to  dawn  in  the  last  year  of 
Sheldon  Jackson's  term  of  service  in  Montana. 

In  1880,  two  railroads, — the  Northern  Pacific  from  the 
East,  and  the  Utah  and  Northern  from  the  South — reached 


192  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  territory.  During  the  next  year  fully  one-fifth  of  the 
population  of  the  preceding  year  was  added  to  its  work- 
ing force  and  as  its  resources  were  developed  in  line  with 
the  activities  and  industries  of  the  outside  world,  the 
secret  of  its  boundless  riches  began  to  be  known  abroad, 
and  its  growth  was  rapid  and  continuous.  In  less  than  a 
decade  after  the  beginning  of  this  era  of  prosperity,  Mon- 
tana was  admitted  to  the  Union,  with  a  population  of 
about  130, 000,  and  an  area  in  square  miles  which  is  ex- 
ceeded by  three  states  only  within  the  bounds  of  our 
national  domain. 

With  the  realization  of  this  dream  of  material  prosper- 
ity, came  the  opportunity  and  tlie  reward  of  the  men  who 
had  waited  in  hoj)e,  and  laboured  amid  many  discourage- 
ments to  give  to  this  fair  land  the  priceless  privileges  of 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  While  the  growth  of  the  Presbj'^- 
terian  Church  in  Montana  has  not  been  so  rapid  as  in  the 
state  of  Colorado,  it  has  reached  out  into  all  the  impor- 
tant points  of  the  state  :  and  the  ground  once  held  by  the 
little  presbytery,  which  needed  the  i)resence  of  its  sy!iod- 
ical  missionary  to  make  a  quorum,  is  now  covered  by  a 
strong,  aggressive,  and  influential  synod. 


Pioneer  Missionaries  in  Arizona,  Utah  and  Montana. 
(For  names  sec  Appendix,  page  4S1.     Group  4.) 


X 

PIONEER  WORK  IN  THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH 

"The  leaders  of  men  are  the  ones  with  eyes  for  the  new  and  excep- 
tional opportunities." — W.  T.  Ellis. 

"Whatever  makes  men  good  Christians,  makes  them  good  citizens." 
— Daniel  Webster. 

WHEN  Brigham  Young  and  his  deluded  follow- 
ers lied  from  the  wrath  of  an  exasperated  and 
outraged  community  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley, they  wandered  wildly  across  the  plains  and  over  the 
mountains  in  search  of  a  new  home.  With  a  zeal,  cour- 
age and  persistency  which  were  worthy  of  a  better  cause, 
they  toiled  for  weeks  and  months  over  sandy  plains  and 
rugged  mountains  until  at  length  a  place  of  refuge  was 
found  beyond  the  last  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in 
the  valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  This  beautiful  basin, 
which  Fremont  had  discovered  and  described  a  short  time 
before,  and  for  the  occupancy  of  which  Brigham  Young 
had  a  revelation  at  an  opportune  moment,  was,  in  some 
respects,  the  counterpart  of  the  basin  of  the  Salt  Sea  in 
the  Jordan  Valley. 

Appropriating  all  that  was  workable  in  connection 
with  this  resemblance,  the  crafty  leader  of  this  motley 
host  laid  out  a  city,  which  he  named  Zion,  and,  in  keep- 
ing with  this  pretension,  called  all  who  acknowledged  it 
as  the  central  place  of  their  worship  and  devotion,  "The 
Latter  Day  Saints."  At  the  date  of  this  settlement, — the 
summer  of  1846— the  whole  extent  of  the  unoccupied 
country  to  which  Brigham  Young  laid  claim,  belonged  to 

193 


194  SHELDON  JACKSON 

tlie  Eepublic  of  Mexico.  At  the  close  of  the  war  with 
Mexico  it  was  ceded  to  the  United  States.  Soon  after,  it 
was  surveyed  by  order  of  the  Federal  government,  and 
out  of  it  was  organized  the  territory  of  Utah.  In  this  iso- 
lated region,  apart  from  the  haunts  of  civilized  men,  and 
some  two  thousand  miles  west  of  New  York  City,  Brig- 
ham  Young  developed  one  of  the  most  cunningly  de- 
vised systems  of  religious  despotism  which  has  ever  been 
invented  by  the  mind  of  man.  It  included  the  teaching 
and  practice  of  polygamy,  blood  atonement,  and  sensual- 
ism in  general  in  its  most  revolting  forms,  under  the  guise 
of  pretended  revelations.  "No  Pope  in  Eome,"  says 
Wm.  Hepworth  Dixon,  "no  Czar  in  Moscow,  no  Caliph 
in  Bagdad,  ever  exercised  such  power  as  the  Mormons 
conferred  on  Brigham  Young.  They  call  themselves 
Saints,  accept  the  Bible  as  true,  baptize  their  converts  in 
the  name  of  Christ ;  but  they  are  7iot  a  Christian  people, 
and  no  church  in  the  world  could  hold  communion  with 
them  in  their  present  state.  In  truth,  they  approach 
much  nearer,  in  creed,  in  morals,  and  in  government,  to 
the  Utes  and  Shoshones  than  to  any  Anglo-Saxon  church. 
Young  gets  a  meaning  from  the  Bible  which  no  one  else 
ever  found  there— a  new  history  of  the  creation,  of  the 
fall,  of  the  atonement,  of  the  future  life.  A  Mahom- 
medan  mosque  stands  nearer  to  the  Christian  than  the  Mor- 
mon temple  stands.  Islam  broke  down  idols,  Mormonism 
sets  them  up.  Smith  and  Young  have  peopled  their 
strange  heaven  with  gods  of  their  own  making  :  and  the 
Almighty  is  in  their  eyes  but  a  President  of  heaven,  a 
Chief  among  spiritual  peers,  occupying  a  throne  like  that 
of  a  Roman  Jove." 

The  territory  of  Utah  was  created  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  President  Fillmore,  and  to  the  amazement  and 
sorrow  of  those  who  knew  something  of  the  coarseness, 
the  unconcealed  disloyalty,  and  despotic  rule  of  Brigham 


PIONEER  WORK  195 

Young,  he  was  made  its  first  governor.  From  this  time 
until  he  was  deposed  for  unbearable  insolence  and  de- 
fiance of  the  authority  of  the  general  government,  during 
the  administration  of  President  Buchanan,  he  rivalled  the 
sultans  of  the  East  in  his  assumption  of  arbitrary  power, 
and  in  the  number  of  his  wives  and  concubines.  When 
he  had  occasion  to  travel  among  his  subjects,  he  journeyed 
''like  an  Oriental  prince,  with  two  personal  servants,  a 
barber,  and  one  of  his  wives,  and  was  followed  by  a  pro- 
cession of  carriages  and  men  on  horseback."  In  the 
earlier  days  of  this  despotic  rule,  he  openly  advocated  the 
exile  or  death  of  those  who  apostatized  from  the  Mormon 
faith,  or  who  opposed  his  j)ernicious  teachings  and  prac- 
tices. The  Danites  and  blood- avengers  were  the  execu- 
tors of  his  jealous  hatred,  and  his  authority  to  banish  or 
to  ''  cut  off"  at  will  was  not  called  in  question.  The  cul- 
miuatiou  of  a  series  of  mysterious  murders  and  assassina- 
tions, estimated  as  not  less  than  five  hundred,  was  the 
massacre  at  Mountain  Meadows,  where,  in  1857,  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  persons — men,  women  and  children 
— belonging  to  an  emigrant  train  which  was  peaceably 
passing  through  the  territory  were  brutally  put  to  death. 
This  infamous  crime,  which  for  several  years  was  attrib- 
uted to  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  was  at  length  traced 
to  its  true  source,  and  the  leader  of  the  party,  Bisliop 
John  D.  Lee,  who  carried  out  the  behest  of  the  Mormon 
rulers  with  fanatical  zeal  and  unquestioning  obedience, 
was  made  the  scapegoat  of  this  awful  tragedy,  and  paid 
the  penalty  of  outraged  justice  with  his  life.' 

'  The  spoils  of  these  murdered  ones,  including  horses,  a  carriage, 
wagons,  clothing,  etc.,  were  brought  to  Salt  Lake  a  few  days  after  the 
massacre  and  sold.  Ten  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds  went  into  the  treas- 
urj'  of  the  church,  and  Brigham  Young,  at  that  time  the  governor  of  the 
territory,  bought  the  carriiige  for  his  own  use.  In  his  confession,  a 
Bhort  time  before  his  execution,  John  D.  Lee  asserts  that  he  and  fifty- 


196  SHELDON  JACKSON 

The  arbitrary  power  which  was  vested  in  the  Mormon 
rulers  was  turned  to  good  advantage  in  so  far  as  the  ma- 
terial development  of  the  country  was  concerned ;  and 
wonderful  things  were  accomj)lislied  in  this  way  which 
could  not  have  been  done  nearly  so  promptly  or  efficiently 
in  a  community  where  individual  liberty  was  recognized 
and  guaranteed.  While  Brigham  Young  was  unscrupu- 
lous in  his  ambitions  and  fanatical  in  his  beliefs,  he  was 
eminently  practical  in  the  administration  of  the  business 
affairs  of  the  community,  over  which  he  exercised  the 
same  arbitrary  authority  as  in  the  affairs  relating  to  the 
church.  With  consummate  tact  and  ability  he  directed 
the  industrial  development  of  the  territory,  exacting  tithes 
of  all  the  increase,  and  making  every  agency  and  indus- 
try contributory  to  the  advancement  of  the  politico-eccle- 
siastical oligarchy  of  which  he  claimed  to  be  the  divinely 
appointed  head.  Under  his  direction,  towns  were  located, 
roads  were  built,  irrigating  ditches  were  constructed,  and 
every  available  mountain  stream  was  utilized  to  beautify 
and  fertilize  the  land.  It  was  his  aim  to  create  a  paradise 
in  the  lowland  sections  of  this  mountain  region,  which 
should  attract  the  downtrodden  and  oppressed  of  all  na- 
tions ;  and  from  the  beginning  of  this  project  he  sent  out 
emissaries  among  all  the  countries  of  Europe  to  preach 
the  excellencies  of  the  Mormon  faith,  and  to  invite  all 
who  came  under  their  influences  to  come  out  from  the  bond- 
age of  old  faiths  and  old  restrictions  into  the  larger  lib- 
erty and  greater  privileges  of  this  new  "  Land  of  Promise ' ' 
in  the  Far  West.  As  the  result  of  these  labours  and  ap- 
peals, multitudes  came,  and  as  fast  as  they  arrived  places 
were  fouud  for  them  and  the  work  for  which  they  seemed 

one  of  his  Mormon  associates  spent  a  portion  of  the  preceding  night  in 
a  prayer-meeting  asking  the  guidance  of  God  witli  respect  to  the  pre- 
meditated massacre  of  the  morrow. — "  Lee's  Confessions, "  pp.  233-234, 
1882. 


PIONEER  WORK  197 

to  be  fitted  was  put  into  their  hands.  Bound  by  the 
double  chain  of  x)Overty  and  dei)endeuce,  there  were  few  if 
any  of  these  newcomers  who  had  the  opportunity,  if  they 
had  the  desire,  to  escape  from  their  environments  and 
conditions.  At  first,  the  new  settlements  were  confined 
to  the  Salt  Lake  valley,  but,  as  the  i)oi)ulation  increased, 
they  were  extended  down  the  centre  of  the  territory,  along 
the  line  of  cleavage  between  the  mountains,  to  Rio  Vir- 
gen,  in  Arizona.  Northward,  they  were  extended  as  far 
as  Oneida,  in  Idaho  Territory.  Thus,  this  attenuated 
commonwealth,  rarely  more  than  ten  miles  in  width,  had 
a  reach  of  about  seven  hundred  miles  from  north  to  south. 
For  almost  twenty  years  after  its  founding,  the  isolated 
inhabitants  of  this  Mormon  commonwealth  were  left, 
practically,  to  their  own  devices.  During  the  progress  of 
the  Civil  War  a  few  non-Mormons,  contemptuously  called 
Gentiles,  settled  in  Salt  Lake  City,  or  prospected  among 
the  mountains  in  its  vicinity  for  silver  and  gold.  From 
the  first  they  were  regarded  as  intruders  and  were  de- 
barred from  many  privileges  and  opportunities  which 
were  accorded  to  American  citizens  in  other  portions  of 
the  land.  There  were  several,  also,  during  this  period 
and  for  two  or  three  years  following,  who  were  treacher- 
ously assassinated,  because  in  some  way  they  had  given 
offense  to  Brigham  Young  or  his  associates.  The  com- 
pletion of  the  Transcontinental  Railway  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  era  of  liberty  and  enlightenment  for  the 
territory  of  Utah.  It  opened  the  way  for  the  incoming 
of  hardy  settlers  from  the  Eastern  states,  who  claimed 
their  right  to  go  and  come,  buy  and  sell,  as  it  seemed 
good  to  them,  without  reference  or  deference  to  the 
despotic  power  which  hitherto  had  ruled  this  portion  of 
the  country.  This  was  not  accorded  to  them,  however, 
without  a  conflict,  which  has  been  continued  to  this  day. 
The  church  and  its  agencies  have  through  all  these  years 


198  SHELDON  JACKSON 

controlled  the  legislation  of  city,  town,  and  state,  and  a 
free  ballot  amid  such  influences  is  virtually  an  impossibil- 
ity. Ill  1869,  there  were  about  one  thousand  non-Mor- 
mons in  Utah,  one-half  of  which  were  prospecting  for 
silver  among  the  mountains.  A  year  later,  the  mining 
population,  mostly  of  this  class,  numbered  four  thousand. 
In  1877,  the  non-Mormon  element  was  estimated  at 
fifteen  thousand,  and  it  has  been  steadily  increasing  in 
numbers  and  influence  until  the  j)reseut  time. 

The  first  evangelical  missionary  to  the  territory  was 
the  Eev.  Norman  McLeod,  who  was  commissioned  by  the 
American  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Congregational 
Church.  He  reached  Salt  Lake  City  in  January,  1865, 
and,  despite  the  threats  made  against  his  life,  inaugurated 
a  religious  service  in  a  building  known  as  Daft's  Hall. 
Here  he  preached  the  Gospel,  organized  a  Sabbath-school, 
and  within  less  than  a  year  secured  the  erection  of  an 
adobe  house  of  worship.  This  successful  beginning 
aroused  the  smouldering  wrath  of  the  Mormon  hierarchy, 
and  a  determined  effort  was  made  to  arrest  it  before  it 
should  take  the  form  of  a  permanent  organization.  In 
the  autumn  of  1866,  while  Mr.  McLeod  was  absent  in  the 
East,  in  the  interests  of  his  mission,  his  Sunday-school 
superintendent  and  most  efficient  helper,  Dr.  King  Eobin- 
son,  a  surgeon  of  the  army,  was  called  from  his  house  to 
visit  a  patient,  and  was  treacherously  assassinated  in  the 
street  by  men  who  were  lying  in  wait  for  his  appearing. 
The  withdrawal  of  the  military  force  from  Fort  Douglas, 
at  this  time,  to  Denver,  deprived  the  non-Mormon  ele- 
ment of  the  protection  they  had  hitherto  enjoyed,  and  for 
this  reason  mainly  the  missionary  society  suspended  the 
work.  It  was  resumed  six  years  later,  under  more  favour- 
able conditions  and  with  gratifying  success. 

In  1867,  Bishop  Tuttle  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  visited 
the  territory  with  a  view  to  the  establishment  of  churches 


PIONEER  WORK  199 

aud  schools,  but  little  progress  was  made  until  after  the 
completion  of  the  Pacific  Railroad. 

The  first  Presbyterian  minister  who  had  the  privilege 
of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  a  Mormon  audience  was  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Henry  Kendall,  whose  honoured  name  will  al- 
ways be  associated  with  the  pioneer  work  of  the  Home 
Board  of  the  United  Church.  While  on  his  way  to  the 
Pacific  coast,  in  1864,  in  the  interests  of  the  home  mis- 
sion work  of  the  New  School  branch  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  he  spent  several  days  in  Salt  Lake  City,  noting 
the  conditions  and  holding  conferences  with  some  of  the 
non-Mormon  residents  and  United  States  officials.  Dur- 
ing this  visit,  he  was  introduced  to  Brigham  Young,  who, 
to  his  great  surprise,  invited  him  to  preach  in  the  Taber- 
nacle. 

''At  this  time,"  says  Dr.  Samuel  E.  Wishard,  the 
present  synod ical  missionary  for  Utah,  "the  Mormon 
prophets  were  predicting  and  praying  for  the  downfiill  of 
our  government.  Hence  Brigham' s  invitation  to  Dr. 
Kendall  had  in  it  the  taunt  of  the  old  mockers  who  said 
to  God's  captive  people, 

"  'Siug  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.' 

Dr.  Kendall's  courage  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  He 
struck  the  gospel  note  that  went  echoing  through  these 
mountains  uutil  it  was  taken  up  in  full  chorus  by  our 
Board  of  Home  Missions.  It  is  the  popular  belief  that 
the  politeness  of  Brigham,  in  his  mild  treatment  of  Dr. 
Kendall,  was  somewhat  due  to  certain  military  aspects 
up  at  Fort  Douglas.  However  that  may  be,  says  Dr. 
Wishard,  Dr.  Kendall  made  some  discoveries  and  his 
gospel  message  had  been  heard  by  the  tabernacle  congre- 
gation. He  had  taken  in  the  situation,  and  that  was 
something  gained." 
To  Sheldon  Jackson  must  be  accorded  the  honour  of 


200  SHELDON  JACKSON 

making  the  first  attempt,  in  so  far  as  the  Presbyterian 
Church  is  coucerued,  of  giving  the  regular  ministrations 
of  the  Gospel  to  the  territory  of  Utah.  In  advance  of 
the  regularly  constituted  agencies  of  the  church,  he  sent 
the  Eev,  Melaucthon  Hughes  on  his  own  responsibility, 
as  already  noted  in  the  chapter  on  the  Iowa  Movement, 
to  Corinne,  at  the  head  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  twenty- 
five  miles  northwest  of  Ogden,  with  a  view  to  its  oc- 
cupancy as  a  strategic  point  from  which  to  begin  the 
Christian  conquest  of  this  goodly,  but  strangely  deluded, 
section  of  our  national  domain.  At  Corinne,  the  popula- 
tion was  mainly  of  American  birth,  and  its  business  in- 
terests were  developed  by  men  who  had  no  sympathy 
with  Brigham  Young  or  the  apostate  church  which  he 
represented.  Hence  there  were  several  persons  in  this 
community  who  welcomed  Mr.  Hughes  and  assisted  him 
in  securing  a  place  in  which  to  hold  regular  services. 
The  first  service  in  this  place  was  held  on  the  13th  of 
June,  1869.  Dr.  Jackson  visited  Corinne  on  the  23d  of 
July,  when  en  route  to  Helena,  Montana.  On  his  return 
journey  from  Helena,  he  looked  over  the  ground  more 
carefully,  preached  on  the  Sabbath,  and  made  arrange- 
ments for  a  temporary  board  of  managers  to  represent  the 
congregation  in  an  effort  to  secure  a  lot  for  a  house  of 
worship  ;  and,  if  the  way  should  be  clear,  eventually,  to 
apply  for  a  church  organization.  The  field  for  which 
Mr.  Hughes  was  commissioned  covered  a  stretch  of  292 
miles  on  the  line  of  the  Pacific  Eailroads,  and  hence  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  make  frequent  visits  or  to  ac- 
cept an  invitation  as  a  permanent  supply.  The  best  that 
could  be  done,  therefore,  at  the  time,  was  to  hold  the 
ground  until  a  minister  could  be  secured  for  this  portion 
of  the  field.  In  the  spring  of  1870,  the  Rev.  Edward  E. 
Bayliss  was  sent  to  Corinne.  He  took  up  the  work  as- 
signed to  him  on  the  10th  of  April,  giving  his  full  time  tc 


PIONEER  WORK  201 

this  point  until  October  9,  1871.  He  assisted  Dr.  Jack- 
son in  the  organization  of  a  chui'ch  with  nine  members 
on  the  14th  of  July,  1870.  A  week  or  two  later,  lots 
were  secured  for  the  erection  of  a  house  of  worship.  This 
building  was  completed  and  dedicated  November  20th  of 
the  same  year.  The  Rev.  John  Brown,  of  Elko,  Nevada, 
the  nearest  Presbyterian  minister,  came  260  miles  to  as- 
sist Mr.  Bayliss  and  the  suiDcrintendent  in  the  dedication 
service.  The  citizens  of  Corinne  contributed  $1,543  to- 
wards the  erection  of  this  house  of  worship,  and  the 
Board  of  Church  Erection  gave  $2,000  additional.  Thus 
was  the  first  Presbyterian  church  organized  and  housed 
in  Utah.  Referring  to  this  memorable  event.  Dr.  Wish- 
ard  says, — 

"  The  indignation  of  the  Prophet  Brigham  was  aroused 
against  the  whole  community.  The  erection  of  a  large 
church  building  and  the  music  of  a  church-bell  still 
further  disturbed  the  Prophet."  To  this  he  adds,  on  the 
authority  of  a  gentleman  who  spent  several  years  in 
Corinne  or  its  neighbourhood  : — 

The  Gentile  town  of  Corinne  was  an  eye-sore  to  Brigham 
Young,  and  he  assiduously  plotted  to  destroy  it.  He  had  his 
son  John,  then  President  of  the  Utah  Northern  Railroad,  build 
the  narrow  gauge  road  from  Logan  to  Franklin,  Idaho,  in  order  to 
intercept  the  travel  northward  at  that  point.  He  then  formally 
cursed  the  town,  its  business  and  people,  from  the  rear  platform 
of  his  private  car,  and  had  the  depot,  track,  and  bridge  across 
the  Bear  River  removed  to  Franklin,  Idaho.  This  not  succeed- 
ing, the  curse  not  being  executed  by  Providence,  he  had  the 
Utah  Northern  sold  to  the  Union  Pacific,  and  the  junction  of 
that  with  the  Central  Pacific  removed  to  Ogden,  and  thus 
Corinne  was  left  a  mere  way-station  on  the  Central  Pacific. 
Still  the  people  clung  to  their  homes,  though  doing  business  at 
Franklin  and  Ogden. 

This  petty  persecution,  which  in  time  did  effect  the 
growth  and  prosi)erity  of  the  church  at  Corinne,  was  in- 


202  SHELDON  JACKSON 

dicative  of  a  smoulderiDg  hatred  and  intolerance  as  deadly 
and  fanatical  as  that  which  culminated  in  the  Mountain 
Meadow  Massacre,  but,  happily,  it  was  now  restrained  by 
a  strong  arm  of  power  which  compelled  a  show  of  obedi- 
ence, at  least,  to  the  laws  of  the  land. 

At  a  critical  time  in  the  history  of  the  church  at 
Corinne,  Dr.  Jackson  undertook  to  supply  its  pulpit  from 
his  home  in  Denver,  as  frequently  as  was  possible,  for  a 
period  of  three  months.  The  records  in  his  note-book 
show  that  he  made  four  round  trips  of  1,300  miles  each, 
from  February  3d  to  April  23d,  in  the  fulfillment  of 
this  voluntary  obligation.  The  idea  of  supplying  a  church 
at  this  distance,  in  the  most  inclement  season  of  the  year, 
would  hardly  have  occurred  to  any  one  else,  and  certainly 
its  apparent  impracticability  would  have  staggered  any 
one  who  did  not  have  free  transportation. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Home  Board, 
the  superintendent  visited  Salt  Lake  City,  July  1, 1871, 
to  make  a  careful  investigation  of  the  situation,  with  the 
view  to  the  establishment  of  a  Presbyterian  church.  As 
a  result  of  this  investigation,  it  was  decided  to  undertake 
the  support  of  a  missionary  in  this  citadel  of  Mormon 
power  and  influence  at  once.  In  order  to  save  time  and 
secure  a  valuable  man,  the  Eev.  Josiah  Welch,  under 
appointment  for  Montana  Territory,  was  transferred  to 
this  field  and  commenced  his  work  October  1,  1871,  by 
preaching  to  a  congregation  of  twelve  persons.  Says  Dr. 
Wishard  : — 


It  is  of  divine  wisdom,  that  when  a  work  is  to  be 
done,  God  always  has  a  man  prepared  for  it.  The  clock 
struck  the  hour,  and  the  Rev.  Josiah  Welch,  a  recent  gradu- 
ate of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  answered  to  the  call  of 
Providence.  He  had  been  commissioned  by  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  to  take  work  in  Montana,  but  the  synodical 
missionary  stepped  across  his  path,  and  confronted  him  with 


PIONEER  WORK  203 

the  claims  of  the  people  of  Utah,  emphasizing  his  plea  with  a 
revelation  (non-Mormon)  to  the  young  preacher  of  the  deep 
spiritual  darkness  that  had  settled  down  upon  Salt  Lake  City, 
like  the  pall  of  an  unbroken  night.  Mr.  Welch  had  the  wis- 
dom to  see  the  opportunity,  and  to  interpret  it  as  the  voice  of 
God.  He  obeyed  that  voice,  though  it  remained  for  those  of 
us  coming  after  him  to  realize  the  heroism  of  his  decision  and 
its  value  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  Embarrassments  met  him  at 
the  very  beginning  of  his  work.  Brigham  Young  had  closed 
against  Christian  work  every  hall  and  every  place  of  public  con- 
course. Mr.  Welch  finally  rented  the  hay-loft  of  a  livery 
stable,  at  an  expense  of  fifty  dollars  per  month.  A  church  of 
eleven  members  was  organized,  (tradition  says  in  the  skating 
rink)  on  the  Sabbath,  November  12,  1871.  This  was  ac- 
complished by  Mr.  Welch,  Sheldon  Jackson,  and  Dr.  Geo.  S. 
Boardman,  who  was  providentially  present. 

For  about  three  years  services  were  held  in  the  skating 
rink  and  other  halls,  as  opportuuity  offered,  and  the  little 
flock  steadily  grew  in  numbers  and  influence.  As  soon  as 
Mr.  Welch  had  entered  upon  his  work,  Sheldon  Jackson 
sent  out,  through  the  religious  press,  an  earnest  appeal  for 
assistance  in  the  building  of  a  suitable  house  of  worship. 
In  this  appeal,  he  asked  for  a  Christmas  gift  of  $5  each 
from  5,000  Presbyterian  women.  The  response  in  this  in- 
stance came  far  short  of  his  expectation, — for  the  imijor- 
tance  of  evangelizing  this  crudo  mass  of  deluded  immi- 
grants was  not  realized  at  that  time, — and  afterwards  Mr. 
Welch  was  obliged  to  leave  his  important  work  in  Utah, 
for  several  months,  in  the  care  of  others,  while  he  pleaded 
with  friends  aud  well-wishers  in  the  East  for  the  necessary 
aid  to  make  it  efftcient. 

He  succeeded  at  length  in  securing  a  sufficient  amount 
to  warrant  the  building  of  a  comfortable  house  of  wor- 
ship, which  was  erected  upon  a  large  aud  well  located  lot 
containing  a  house  suitable  for  a  numse.  The  building 
was  dedicated  on  the  11th  of  October,  1874.  From  this 
date  on,  the  church  has  had  a  continuous  growth,  and 


204  SHELDON  JACKSON 

more  aud  more  as  the  years  have  jDassed  it  has  become  a 
power  for  righteousness  throughout  the  territories  domi- 
nated by  Morman  influeuce,  as  well  as  in  this  rapidly 
growing  city.  It  has  established  two  mission  stations  in 
other  parts  of  the  city,  which  have  now  become  vigorous 
churches,  aud  its  present  membership  is  520,  with  a  Sab- 
bath-school enrollment  of  more  than  800.  This  influential 
church,  throughout  its  eventful  history,  has  had  but 
three  pastors.  To  Josiah  Welch  was  given  the  difficult 
and  dangerous  task  of  gathering,  organizing,  and  devel- 
oping it  in  troublous  times,  and  in  its  interests  he  toiled 
laboriously  and  unselfishly  until  failing  health  made  it 
necessary  to  give  the  work  into  other  hands.  With  the 
same  spirit  of  devotion,  his  successor,  the  Eev.  Eobert  G. 
McNeice,  took  up  the  work,  and,  with  unflinching  cour- 
age, withstood  the  evil  influences  which  were  arrayed 
against  him,  upholding  the  standard  of  Christian  purity 
in  the  interests  of  the  nation,  as  well  as  of  the  Church 
which  he  represented.  After  nearly  twenty  years  of  con- 
tinuous toil,  Dr.  McNeice  was  released  from  this  charge 
to  enable  him  to  devote  his  time  and  energies  to  the  estab- 
lishment and  development  of  Westminster  College,  a  direct 
outgrowth  of  the  good  work  which  Dr.  Jackson  began  in 
the  summer  of  1869.  A  worthy  successor  to  Dr.  McNeice 
was  found  in  Dr.  William  M.  Padeu,  who  left  the  Hol- 
land Memorial  Church  of  Philadelphia  to  cast  iu  his  lot 
with  the  noble  band  of  labourers  in  Utah,  who,  with 
singleness  of  aim,  were  striving  to  redeem  this  fair  herit- 
age of  the  nation  from  the  corrupting  influences  of  igno- 
rance, superstition,  and  sensualism.  Under  his  wise  aud 
able  leadership,  a  new  house  of  worship  which  ranks 
among  the  best  in  this  section  of  the  land,  has  been  built 
and  dedicated,  and  the  influeuce  of  the  church  itself  has 
been  felt  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  as  well  as  in  the 
assemblies  of  the  Church  for  which  it  stands. 


PIONEER  WORK  205 

In  the  spring  of  1875,  the  session  of  the  Church  organ- 
ized the  Salt  Lake  Collegiate  Institute,  and  elected  Prof. 
J.  M.  Coyner,  of  Indiana,  as  principal.  This  school, 
which  was  opened  up  in  connection  with  the  Presbyterian 
church  in  Utah,  was  held  for  some  time  in  the  basement 
of  the  house  of  worship.     Says  Dr.  Wishard  : — 

The  story  of  this  institution,  that  enrolled  the  first  year 
sixty-three  pupils,  and  within  the  next  two  years  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five,  would  furnish  data  for  a  history  of  its  own. 
Christian  education  in  the  Collegiate  Institute  has  advanced 
step  by  step  from  the  day  of  small  things  until  two  commodious 
buildings  are  demanded,  and  have  been  furnished  to  meet  the 
necessities  of  the  educational  wants  of  the  people. 

In  this  phase  of  the  work,  Dr.  Jackson  was  deeply  inter- 
ested, and  in  his  public  addresses,  as  well  as  in  the  col- 
umns of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Presbyterian,  he  aroused  the 
Church  to  the  necessity  of  opening  and  sustaining  Chris- 
tian schools  at  every  available  point  where  missions  were, 
or  should  be,  established.  Out  of  this  necessity  grew  the 
educational  work  of  the  Woman's  Home  Board,  which 
to-day  is  one  of  the  most  successful  agencies  of  the  Church 
in  connection  with  the  evangelization  of  the  land.  Of 
this  agency  and  the  part  which  Sheldon  Jackson  had  in 
its  beginning  and  development,  more  will  be  said  in  an- 
other place. 

When  Mr.  Welch  made  his  first  trip  to  the  East,  about 
the  1st  of  Jaiuiary,  1873,  for  the  purpose  of  solicit- 
ing funds  for  the  erection  of  a  house  of  worship,  Dr. 
Jackson  undertook  the  supply  of  his  pulpit  during  his 
absence,  which  covered  a  period  of  about  two  and  a  half 
months.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  days  required  for 
a  hurried  trip  to  Denver  and  return,  he  spent  the  whole 
of  this  time  in  Utah,  ministering  to  the  little  flock  in  Salt 
Lake,   preaching  at  points  within  reach,  exi^loring  new 


206  SHELDON  JACKSON 

fields,  and  studying  on  the  ground  the  needs  and  condi- 
tions of  the  territory  as  a  whole. 

One  of  the  points  to  which  his  attention  was  directed 
at  this  time  was  Alta,  a  mining  camp  at  the  head  of  the 
Little  Cottonwood  Canon.  This  was  the  seat  of  the 
famous"  Emma  Mine,"  and  those  who  flocked  to  it  from  all 
parts  of  the  country  were  mostly  adventurers  of  the  low- 
est class.  It  was  known  distinctively  as  a  "Gentile" 
town,  a  designation  which  in  this  case  was  too  literally 
true  to  be  creditable  to  non-Mormon  residents  in  other 
parts  of  the  territory.  The  season  was  not  far  enough 
advanced  to  visit  this  place  during  the  superintendent's 
stay  in  Salt  Lake,  but  near  the  close  of  the  month  of  May 
he  returned  to  Utah,  and  spent  a  Sabbath  at  Alta. 
Moved  by  the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  place,  where  no 
gospel  message  had  hitherto  been  proclaimed,  he  de- 
scribed the  necessities  of  the  field  and  asked  for  a  volun- 
teer from  the  young  men  who  were  seeking  a  place  in 
which  to  labour.  The  Eev.  J.  P.  Schell,  of  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  promj^tly  responded  to  this  call,  and 
amid  many  discouragements  commenced  his  labours  early 
in  June.  On  the  20th  of  July,  Dr.  Jackson  assisted  him 
in  the  organization  of  a  church. 

This  was  the  first  Protestant  organization  in  Alta,  and 
much  interest  was  manifested  in  its  success  by  the  better 
class  of  the  community.  In  October  of  the  same  year,  a 
frame  building,  well  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  congre- 
gation, was  dedicated,  and,  soon  after,  a  reading-room, 
for  the  benefit  of  all  who  wished  to  avail  themselves  of  its 
privileges,  was  added. 

Eeferring  to  the  labours  and  triumphs  of  this  young 
missionary.  Dr.  Jackson  says  : — "Well  do  we  remember 
him  at  an  early  visit,  his  study  over  a  grocery  and  whisky 
store,  the  ceiling  and  walls  lined  with  cotton  cloth, 
the  feather  bed  handy  in  which  to  roll  himself  when  the 


PIONEER  WOEK  207 

stray  bullets  from  a  street  brawl  came  unpleasantly  close, 
and  his  feet  and  legs  rolled  uj)  in  pieces  of  carpeting  to 
keep  him  warm  as  he  sat  in  his  room.  The  snow  was 
five  feet  deep  in  June  in  the  main  street,  and  in  making 
pastoral  visits  on  the  back  streets,  we  passed  from  the  level 
of  the  snow  by  a  plank  into  the  second-story  window. 
In  July  we  slejDt  under  four  jDairs  of  blankets. "  Here, 
despite  these  apiDalling  difficulties,  the  Gospel  was  faith- 
fully x^reached,  the  children  were  gathered  into  the  Sab- 
bath-school and  taught  the  way  of  life,  wanderers  were  re- 
claimed, and  the  people  of  God  were  strengthened  and 
built  up  in  their  most  holy  faith.  Like  most  of  the  min- 
ing camps,  its  day  was  brief,  and  at  length  the  little 
church  which  had  stood  for  all  that  was  good  and  true 
amid  abounding  evil,  died,  like  the  town  in  which  it  was 
located,  for  lack  of  population. 

While  the  way  was  thus  opened  up  for  the  establishment 
of  three  Presbyterian  churches  in  Mormon  territory,  they 
were  all  gathered  originally  from  the  non-Mormon  ele- 
ment of  each  of  these  communities.  Meanwhile,  the  i^rov- 
idence  of  God  was  opening  up  the  way  for  the  evangel- 
ization of  the  benighted  residents  of  Mormon  communities, 
where,  as  yet,  there  was  no  nucleus  of  evangelical  faith 
or  following.  The  chosen  instrument  for  the  inaugura- 
tion of  this  work  was  a  young  minister,  Duncan  J. 
McMillan,  who  at  the  close  of  his  seminary  couise  had 
accepted  a  call  to  a  small  church  in  Illinois. 

While  zealously  labouring  in  this  field,  his  work  was 
suddenly  arrested  by  the  failure  of  his  health.  In  the 
summer  of  1874,  he  came  to  Colorado  to  test  the  eflQcacy 
of  its  life-giving  atmosphere,  and  also  to  make  inquiries 
concerning  a  field  of  labour  in  this  territory,  in  case  he 
should  be  compelled  to  give  up  his  charge  in  Illinois. 
While  on  an  outing  of  a  fortnight  with  the  Jackson 
family  at  Idaho  Springs,  the  writer  met  IMr.  McMillan 


208  SHELDON  JACKSON 

for  the  first  time,  and  greatly  enjoyed  his  genial  com- 
paniouship,  roaming  ov  er  the  mountains  and  chatting  by 
the  camp-fire  with  him  for  several  days.  With  his 
usual,  never-failing  hospitality,  Dr.  Jackson  had  invited 
this  young  health-seeker  to  join  his  family  in  camp,  and 
soon  found  in  him  a  man  after  his  own  heart.  In  giving 
some  personal  reminiscences  with  respect  to  this  vacation 
experience  and  its  outcome,  Dr.  McMillan  says  : — 

I  first  met  Dr.  Jackson  in  1874.  Being  in  quest  of  health  I 
was  advised  by  him  to  try  the  climate  of  Utah,  where  I  might 
find  health  and  a  field  for  missionary  effort.  At  that  time,  we 
had  three  little  churches  in  the  territory  ;  one  at  the  Gentile 
railroad  town  of  Corinne,  one  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  one  in 
the  mining  town  of  Alta.  But  Dr.  Jackson  had  in  mind  a  new 
departure.  No  one  had  attempted  the  Mormon  towns,  and  no 
one  but  the  indomitable  Jackson  would  have  conceived  the  idea 
of  invading  them.  He  had  not  visited  them,  but  had  heard 
that  there  was  disaffection  in  the  ranks  of  the  "Saints,"  and 
upon  the  rumour,  which  he  believed  to  be  well  founded,  he 
suggested  that  an  attempt  be  made.  Others  scouted  the  idea. 
The  secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  did  not  favour 
it,  nor  did  the  Board  make  any  appropriation  for  it.  But  Dr. 
Jackson  promised  to  stand  by  the  missionary.  He  kept  his 
word,  never  wavering,  but  giving  the  movement  his  endorse- 
ment in  the  face  of  derision  and  censure.  In  time,  he  not  only 
secured  the  support  of  the  Board,  but  created  a  sentiment 
throughout  the  Church  favourable  to  the  work. 

The  point  in  Utah  to  which  Mr.  McMillan  was  sent,  a 
few  months  after  his  visit  to  Colorado,  was  Mt.  Pleasant, 
in  San  Pete  County,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  miles 
south  of  Salt  Lake  City.  The  story  of  his  trials  and 
triumphs  in  this  difficult  field  is  oue  of  the  most  thrilling 
in  the  annals  of  our  home  mission  work.  The  favour 
with  which  he  was  received  by  apostate  Mormons  brought 
down  upon  him  the  hatred  and  vindictiveness  of  the 
priesthood  and  rulers,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  dis- 


PIONEER  WORK  209 

credit  his  mission  and  crush  out  his  attempts  to  organize 
a  chui'ch  and  school.  A  few  mouths  after  he  had  entered 
upon  his  work,  Brigham  Young  and  his  twelve  apostles 
visited  Mt.  Pleasant  and  held  a  two  days'  mass  meeting  of 
four  services.  Three  of  these  were  given  to  denuncia- 
tions of  Mr.  McMillan  and  his  work. 

He  was  accused  of  the  vilest  crimes,  and  by  one  of  the 
speakers  the  boast  was  openly  made  that  the  bullets  were 
moulded  for  his  benefit  and  would  be  used  at  the  first 
favourable  opportunity.  At  this  time,  forty  pupils  were 
withdrawn  from  the  school  and  Brigham  Young  com- 
manded the  people  to  unite  and  drive  the  intruder  from 
their  midst.  One  night  he  was  awakened  by  a  noise  at 
his  window  and  on  going  to  it  saw  a  masked  man  clutch- 
ing the  window  sill  with  one  hand  and  holding  a  revolver 
in  the  other.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation  he  thrust 
his  own  revolver  in  the  would-be  assassin's  face,  who 
quickly  fled.  At  another  time  he  was  invited  to  an  oyster 
supper,  where  wine  and  other  liquors  were  served. 
When  he  refused  several  invitations  to  join  with  some 
young  men  who  were  present  in  di'inking,  he  was  rudely 
seized  by  two  or  three  of  them  who  tried  to  force  some 
whisky,  presumably  drugged  for  the  occasion,  down  his 
throat.  When  he  stoutly  resisted,  however,  the  attempt 
was  given  up.  Again  and  again  he  was  warned  by 
friends  among  the  liberal  element  of  the  place  that  his 
life  was  in  danger.  Bishops  denounced  him  and  forbade 
his  preaching  in  their  towns,  but  he  kindly  and  yet 
firmly  informed  them  that  he  would  preach  wherever  the 
American  flag  floated.  At  one  point  he  found  that  his 
notices  for  a  preaching  service  had  been  intercepted,  but, 
nothing  daunted,  he  hastily  put  up  notices  on  his  arrival, 
about  five  o'clock  p.  m.,  in  the  post-office  and  some  of 
the  stores  and  at  half-past  seven  he  found  the  house 
crowded  with  people.      On  entering,    a  fiieud  of  the 


210  SHELDON  JACKSON 

liberal  element  of  the  place  took  him  aside  and  advised 
him  not  to  go  on  with  the  service,  telling  him  that  there 
were  those  present  who  had  sworn  to  shoot  him  before  the 
meeting  should  be  dismissed.  Thanking  his  friend  for 
the  information,  he,  however,  declined  to  dismiss  the 
meeting.  When  the  time  had  arrived  to  begin  the  serv- 
ice, he  invited  the  mayor  and  bishop,  who  were  present, 
to  the  platform.  When  they  declined,  he  took  his  place 
on  the  platform  and  laid  his  revolver  upon  the  open 
Bible  in  full  view  of  the  audience.  He  then  sang  a  hymn 
alone,  read  the  Scriptures,  poured  out  his  soul  in  prayer, 
and  afterwards  "preached  such  a  loving  Gospel  that 
enmity  for  the  time  being  was  disarmed." 

At  the  close  of  five  years  of  wonderfully  successful 
labour  in  this  valley,  Mr.  McMillan  gave  the  following 
summary  of  his  experiences  and  encouragements  : — 

When  I  reached  this  populous  valley,  March  3,  1875,  I 
found  myself  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  any  Christian 
— not  one  professing  Christian  among  the  17,00c  who  lived 
and  moved  and  had  their  being  in  this  valley.  The  entire 
non-Mormon  element  had  come  out  from  the  Mormon  church 
and  were  avowed  enemies  of  all  religion.  There  was  little  in 
common  with  them  and  myself,  except  antipathy  to  Mornion- 
ism.  They  were,  however,  anxious  that  some  provision  might 
be  made  for  the  education  of  their  children.  This  was  the 
single  thread  by  which  I  might  hope  to  draw  them.  This 
thread  I  seized  with  a  firm  grasp.  They  gave  me  ^535,  and  I 
pledged  ^1,000,  towards  a  building,  at  that  time  unfinished, 
and  the  title  and  the  property  at  once  vested  in  me.  I 
published  appeals  for  help,  as  none  of  our  Boards  at  that  time 
could  help  us  to  build  or  buy.  Then  I  went  East  at  my  own 
expense,  and  personally  applied  for  aid.  But  my  appeals 
elicited  such  replies  as  these  :  From  an  elder  in  St.  Joseph  : 
"  I've  seen  enough  of  these  Mormon  hordes  ;  there's  not  a  soul 
among  them  worth  saving.  I'll  not  give  a  dime  towards  your 
enterprise."  A  minister  in  Illinois  said:  "I  believe  firmly 
that  the  Mormons  are  all  reprobate,  and  I  would  advise  you  to 
abandon  your  wild  scheme,  or  you  may  perish  with  them. ' '     Said 


PIONEER  WORK  211 

another  elder,  who  was  a  bank  president :  **  Sir,  no  amount  of 
credentials  could  commend  to  my  favour  the  advocate  of  any 
such  undertaking.  Those  who  liave  endorsed  you  have  be- 
littled themselves,"  With  these  words  Dives  shut  his  door  in 
my  face  and  left  me  standing  on  his  steps  in  the  rain.  But  I 
thank  God  for  giving  me  more  faith  in  Himself  than  in  men. 
With  150  children  of  Mormon  parentage  under  our  instruction 
at  that  time,  and  a  congregation  attending  regularly  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Word,  I  knew  that  the  effort  could  not  die  fruitless. 
The  money  came  not  apparently  as  the  result  of  special  appeals, 
but  in  answer  to  prayer.  Spurned  by  many  of  the  household 
of  faith,  despised  and  cursed  by  Mormon  priests  and  apostles,  I 
was  impelled  by  the  promises  of  God  and  drawn  by  the  pros- 
pect of  17,000  souls  without  another  voice  to  declare  a  Saviour's 
love  to  tiiem.  Oh  !  those  days  seem  now  to  be  but  strange 
visions  of  the  past.  Out  of  those  trying  and  perilous  days, 
and  through  the  then  dark  and  portentous  future,  God  has 
surely  led  us.  Five  hundred  children  and  youth  have  passed 
under  our  instruction  and  influence,  and  now  call  us  blessed. 
The  circle  of  young  people  lias  been  revolutionized  in  senti- 
ment and  spirit.  A  churcli  whose  roll  contains  forty-two 
names — thirty-five  of  whom  remain — has  grown  up.  Three 
other  churches  in  as  many  neighbouring  towns  are  part  of  the 
immediate  results.  An  average  of  one  convert,  or  sixty-eight 
in  the  five  years  and  eight  months,  I  have  welcomed  from  the 
Mormon  ranks  to  the  communion  of  our  beloved  church.  The 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  twenty  schools  in  purely 
Mormon  communities,  in  an  unbroken  line  of  400  miles  from 
north  to  south,  with  1,500  children  of  Mormon  parentage  thus 
brought  under  gospel  influences,  and  the  distribution  of  hun- 
dreds of  copies  of  the  Word  of  God,  where  before  it  was  un- 
known, are  parts  of  the  visible  fruits. 

When  these  liopeful  words  were  written,  Mr.  McMillan 
had  accepted  the  appoiutmeut  of  general  superintendent 
of  the  mission  field  in  Utah,  from  which  Dr.  Jack- 
sou  had  asked  to  be  relieved,  and  was  about  to  enter  upon 
his  duties  in  connection  with  the  work.  From  tliis 
charge,  in  which  he  acquitted  himself  with  the  same  fidel- 
ity and  ability  which  he  had  shown  in  the  work  at  Mt. 
Pleasant,  he  was  called  to  serve  the  Church  in  a  wider 


212  SHELDON  JACKSON 

field  as  a  secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Board.  With 
respect  to  the  work  of  his  predecessor  iu  preparing  the 
way  for  the  successes  of  the  later  years,  especially  in 
Southern  Utah,  Dr.  McMillan  says  : — 

In  1876,  Sheldon  Jackson  visited  the  valley  of  San  Pete, 
and  from  personal  observations,  mainly,  published  the  fiist 
complete  statement  of  work  among  the  Mormons,  its  encour- 
agements and  its  needs.  From  this  publication  dates  the  steady 
growth  and  prosperity  of  that  great  work.  The  next  year  he 
went  by  stage  and  private  conveyance  through  Utah  to  St. 
George,  the  southern  capital  of  the  Mormon  empire,  at  the 
southwest  extremity  of  the  territory.  Here  he  preached  in  the 
Mormon  Tabernacle,  the  first  gospel  sermon  ever  dehvered  in 
that  city.  The  voice  of  no  Christian  minister  of  any  denomi- 
nation had  ever  been  heard  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the  town. 
I  accompanied  him  part  of  the  way.  On  that  trip,  Dr.  Jack- 
son showed  his  rare  tact  more  than  once. 

One  evening,  weary  of  travel,  we  found  lodging  in  a  small 
farmhouse.  We  spent  the  evening  and  far  into  the  night  in 
conversation  with  the  family,  and  in  singing  gospel  songs, 
which  were  new  to  the  family.  The  parents  and  children  were 
delighted.  They  asked  if  we  were  giving  concerts  through  the 
country,  and  were  surprised  to  learn  that  we  were  not  profes- 
sional singers.  In  the  morning,  when  we  offered  compensation 
for  our  lodging,  we  were  told  that  our  songs  were  ample  pay. 
But  we  declined  to  have  the  bill  setUed  that  way.  Dr.  Jack- 
son offered  a  year's  subscription  to  the  Rocky  Mountain  Pres- 
byterian, and  I  The  hiterior  for  a  year.  The  man  gladly  ac- 
cepted both.  Before  leaving,  at  the  request  of  the  man,  Dr. 
Jackson  made  a  statement  of  our  religious  belief  so  clear,  sim- 
ple, and  complete  that  the  man  confessed  that,  though  new  to 
him,  it  was  reasonable,  and  that  it  appealed  to  his  conscience. 
Soon  after,  he  and  his  family  left  the  Mormon  faith  and  iden- 
tified themselves  with  our  church. 

After  Dr.  Jackson's  return  from  this  trip,  he  wrote  an 
open  letter  to  the  "Ladies  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches 
of  Brooklyn,"  describing  the  condition  and  degradation 
of  the  women  of  the  polygamous  households  he  had  met 
in  various  places  on  this  journey. 


PIONEER  WORK  213 

This  letter  produced  a  deep  impression,  and  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  the  work  which  had  just  been  inaugurated  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  exceptional  population  of  the 
"Western  territories. 

In  the  early  seventies,  the  town  of  Brigham,  so  named 
by  its  ecclesiastical  ruler,  ''Apostle  Lorenzo  Snow,"  in 
honour  of  Brigham  Young,  was  famous  for  its  intense  de- 
votion to  the  exclusive  tenets  of  the  Mormon  faith.  It 
was  the  boast  of  its  inhabitants  that  it  was  then,  and 
should  be  kept  in  the  future,  a  distinctively  Mormon 
settlement.  It  was  only  six  miles  from  the  "  Gentile " 
city  of  Corinne,  where  Sheldon  Jackson  established  the 
first  Presbyterian  mission,  but  for  several  years  it  was 
almost  impossible  for  the  missionary  at  that  point  to  make 
an  appointment  for  a  religious  service  or  secure  a  place 
in  which  to  hold  it.  In  the  summer  of  1874,  the  Eev.  S. 
L.  Gillespie,  a  returned  missionary  from  Africa,  was  sent 
to  Corinne,  and  in  some  way  he  secured  the  opportunity 
to  conduct  a  service  in  the  court-house.  For  several 
months  afterwards,  he  sought  to  get  a  foothold  in  this 
stronghold,  but  without  avail.  At  length,  he  found  a  dis- 
contented Mormon,  who  had  borne  the  yoke  until  patience 
and  endurance  were  exhausted,  and  who  was  willing  to 
sell  his  property  to  the  Home  Mission  Board  for  a  con- 
sideration. In  the  spring  of  1878,  Mr.  Gillespie  removed 
to  Brigham,  despite  the  threats  which  had  been  made  by 
its  fanatical  residents,  and  occupied  the  house  for  a  resi- 
dence and  mission  station.  Up  to  this  point,  his  move- 
ments had  not  been  fully  understood,  but  when  he  ac- 
tually appeared  with  all  his  outfit  and  quietly  took  pos- 
session of  the  house,  he  was  banned  by  the  priesthood  and 
subjected  to  a  series  of  insults  and  outrages  by  neighbours 
and  hoodlum  bands,  with  the  avowed  intention  of  forcing 
him  to  abandon  his  work  and  leave  the  place.  Says  Dr. 
McNiece : — 


214  SHELDON  JACKSON 

The  two  men  who  had  committed  the  awful  offense  of  using 
their  wagons  to  move  this  worthy  American  citizen  into  that 
town  from  Corinne,  were  brought  before  the  priestly  authorities 
and  arbitrarily  dealt  with. 

Then  the  despotic  command  of  the  priesthood  went  around 
forbidding  the  people  to  sell  Mr.  Gillespie  any  supplies  for  his 
family,  simply  because  he  was  an  American,  and  a  Christian 
American.  Consequently,  for  several  months,  he  had  to  go  six 
miles  across  the  country  to  Corinne  to  buy  most  of  his  provi- 
sions, dry-goods,  clothing,  and  other  necessaries.  Then  they 
began  to  injure  his  property,  by  tearing  down  his  fences,  tip- 
ping over  the  outbuildings  and  stoning  the  house.  Several 
times  the  windows  of  his  dwelling  were  stoned,  sometimes  en- 
dangering life.  But  a  man  who  had  been  four  years  a  mission- 
ary in  Africa,  and  three  years  in  the  calvary  service  during  our 
Civil  War,  part  of  the  time  as  a  staff-officer,  was  the  wrong  man 
upon  whom  to  practice  this  kind  of  intimidation.  Then  the 
children  who  began  to  attend  his  school  were  threatened,  and 
some  agent  of  the  priesthood  would  stand  before  the  door  of  the 
Immble  chapel  on  Sunday  evening  to  intimidate  the  Mormon 
people  from  attending  the  service,  by  reporting  their  names  to 
the  priestly  leaders. 

Despite  all  these  hindrances  and  petty  persecutions,  the 
good  work  went  on,  and  soon  the  transforming  power  of 
the  Gospel  began  to  be  felt  and  acknowledged.  Scoffers 
were  silenced  by  the  sweet  spirit  and  patient  endurance 
of  the  man  who  confronted  them.  There  were  those  who 
had  watched  the  effect  of  the  cui"se  which  had  been  pro- 
nounced upon  his  house,  his  well,  his  garden,  and  all  the 
mission  premises,  and  they  were  not  a  little  shaken  in 
their  fanatical  belief  when  they  saw,  as  one  has  put  it — 
"that  the  curse  so  far  as  the  garden  was  concerned  proved 
to  be  a  great  fertilizer,  for  the  yield  of  vegetables  was  un- 
usually large."  As  the  days  passed  on,  and  this  curse 
seemed  to  be  harmless,  in  other  matters  a  new  interest 
was  awakened  in  the  man  and  his  message.  The  neigh- 
bours who  had  held  aloof  began  to  make  friendly  ad- 
vances, the  school  grew  in  numbers,  and  at  length  the 


PIONEER  WORK  215 

little  chapel  was  crowded  with  interested  and  earnest 
listeners.  When  eight  years  after  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Gil- 
lespie in  their  midst,  a  convention  of  the  Christian  teach- 
ers of  the  Presbyterian  Church  met  at  Brigham,  some 
sixty  in  number,  including  ministers  and  missionaries, 
they  were  met  at  the  station  by  the  band  of  the  town  and 
were  escorted  with  every  demonstration  of  respect  up  to 
the  heart  of  the  little  city,  where  they  were  welcomed  by 
some  of  the  best  of  the  Mormons  whose  homes  were  open 
to  receive  them.  Thus  the  light  at  length  dispelled  the 
darkness  and  the  reception  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus 
brought  liberty  to  those  who  were  in  bondage. 

About  forty  miles  north  of  Ogden,  on  the  Union  Pacific 
road,  and  just  over  the  "divide"  there  is  a  beautiful 
elongated  basin,  rimmed  about  with  snow-capped  moun- 
tains, known  as  the  "Cache  Valley."  It  is  about  forty 
miles  in  length,  and  from  ten  to  twenty  miles  in  width. 
Its  beauty  and  fertility  made  it  a  desirable  place  for 
settlement,  from  the  early  occupation  of  the  country,  and 
Brigham  Young  regarded  it  as  a  valuable  "stake  "  from 
which  to  enlarge  his  borders  into  the  rich  valleys  of 
Southern  Idaho. 

Here  also  in  process  of  time  the  indomitable  Jackson 
appeared  on  his  trail  and  disputed  the  possession  of  that 
fair  heritage.  In  Dr.  Wishard'  s  interesting  book,  entitled 
"Our  Home  Mission  Work  in  Utah,"  there  is  a  full  ac- 
count of  the  origin  and  development  of  the  mission  to  this 
valley. 

"With  the  base  of  operations," — he  writes, — "which  had 
been  secured  at  Corinne  and  Salt  Lake,  Dr.  Jackson  pushed 
his  investigations  on  northward  beyond  Ogden  and  Brigham 
into  Logan. 

"  He  had  a  genius  not  only  for  discovering  work  but  work- 
ers also.  Having  found  the  opportunity  at  Logan  he  went  in 
search  of  a  man,  who  had  grace  and  wisdom  enough  to  know  an 
opportunity  on  sight.     He  found  the  man  in  the  Metropolitan 


216  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Church  at  Washington  City — not  in  the  pulpit,  but  in  the  pew. 
After  he  had  made  his  plea  for  help  before  the  congregation,  he 
went  into  the  Sabbath-school,  which  is  always  a  good  place  to 
find  the  best  material  for  the  best  service.  Here  he  discovered 
Mr.  Calvin  M.  Parks  teaching  a  large  Bible  class  of  young 
ladies,  while  his  wife  and  daughter  had  an  infant  class  of  be- 
tween three  and  four  hundred.  At  the  close  of  the  school,  Mr. 
Parks  was  informed  by  the  synodical  missionary  that  he  was 
needed  in  Utah  ;  and  that  his  work  there  was  not  to  teach  but 
to  preach  the  Gospel ;  and  that  he  should  prepare  himself  for  that 
work.  Mr.  Parks  was  obedient  to  the  heavenly  calling,  was 
soon  licensed  to  preach  the  Gospel,  was  dismissed  to  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Utah,  and  on  the  5th  of  July,  1878,  like  Abraham, 
went  out  not  knowing  whither  he  went.  He  found  the  place, 
however,  as  every  man  does  who  obeys  the  call  of  God,  and  in 
due  time  he  was  located  in  the  beautiful  little  city  of  Logan. 
He  secured  a  'furniture  wareroom,  and  paint -shop  back  of  it,' 
which  was  soon  transformed  into  a  chapel,  schoolroom,  study, 
parlour,  kitchen,  and  hall.  Early  in  September,  the  little  mis- 
sion school  was  opened  with  six  pupils.  It  was  a  beginning, 
and  as  nothing  ever  proceeds  without  a  beginning,  something 
had  been  achieved.  For  two  years,  the  teaching  was  carried 
on  in  this  building,  while  the  machinery  overhead  was  keeping 
up  a  brisk  rivalry.  Mr.  Parks  was  ordained  at  the  first  meeting 
of  presbytery,  and  a  church  of  eleven  members  was  organized 
on  the  loth  of  December,  1878." 

The  school  which  began  with  six  pupils  developed  soon 
afterwards  into  the  ''New  Jersey  Academy,"  for  the 
equipment  of  which  the  ladies  of  New  Jersey  contributed 
the  handsome  sum  of  eleven  thousand  dollars.  In  its 
after-growth  it  employed  five  teachers,  and  a  matron  who 
had  charge  of  the  boarding  department.  The  number  of 
pupils  in  attendance  at  this  time  was  more  than  one 
hundred.  Convinced  that  the  whole  valley  was  his  par- 
ish, and  encouraged  by  calls  from  other  towns  who  de- 
sired like  privileges,  Mr.  Parks  pushed  forward  the 
work  until  he  had  completed  the  building  of  seven 
chapels  outside  of  Logan,  in  the  valley,  each  of  which 
was  utilized  for  a  mission  schooL     Thus  was  established 


PIONEER  WORK  217 

a  series  of  mission  churches  and  schools  through  Mormon 
territory  fiom  the  borders  of  Idaho  to  the  borders  of 
Arizona.  Up  to  the  date  of  Dr.  Jackson's  retirement 
from  field  work,  in  Utah,  January  1,  1881,  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  was  the  only  religious  body  which  had 
planted  and  maintained  mission  schools  in  distinctively 
Morman  settlements  and  towns. 

At  this  date,  the  Presbytery  of  Utah  reported  a  work- 
ing force  of  eleven  ministers  and  thirty-two  teachers. 
The  latter  were  employed  in  twenty-two  schools,  with  an 
aggregate  attendance  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  pupils. 
It  is  a  significant  fact,  and  not  generally  known,  as  it 
ought  to  be,  that  these  schools,  established  in  the  face  of 
ridicule,  opposition,  and  daily  peril,  became  the  germ  of 
the  public  school  system  of  Utah. 

The  Morman  schools  which  preceded  them  were  main- 
tained for  the  purpose  of  training  the  children  in  Morman 
doctrines  and  practices  and  provided  only  the  crudest 
forms  of  instruction.  "The  present  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction  for  the  State,  although  a  Mormon,  re- 
cently said  that  the  Christian  schools  of  Utah  had  not 
only  paved  the  way  for  our  public  school  system,  but  had 
made  it  a  necessity." 

It  ai)pears  from  data  in  hand  that  the  tireless  leader  of 
the  consecrated  band  which  inaugurated  and  extended 
these  agencies  of  enlightenment  and  redemption  all  over 
this  benighted  section  of  the  land,  made  not  less  than  six- 
teen round  trips  from  his  home  in  Denver  during  the  first 
half  of  the  decade  in  which  he  superintended  the  work  in 
Utah.  In  this  portion  of  his  vast  bishopric  he  was  loyally 
supported  by  the  entire  force  of  missionary  workers  and 
at  every  point  was  met  with  a  cordial  welcome  to  their 
fields  of  labour. 

When  the  work  to  which  he  gave  more  than  a  decade 
of  the  best  years  of  his  life  passed  into  other  hands,  his  in- 


218  SHELDON  JACKSON 

terest  in  it  continued  without  abatement :  and,  by  voice 
and  pen  and  personal  benefaction,  he  has  continuously  ui'ged 
its  claims  and  emphasized  its  importance.  As  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  pioneer  work  which  he  and  his  associates 
accomplished  in  the  formative  period  of  missionary  occu- 
pation, there  is  now  a  Synod  of  Utah,  with  three  aggres- 
sive presbyteries,  which  reaches  from  the  northern  limit 
of  Mormon  occupation  in  Idaho  to  the  border  of  Arizona. 
It  carries  on  its  rolls  to-day  (1908)  sixty-one  ministers, 
sixty-eight  churches,  3,738  communicant  members,  and 
a  Sabbath-school  membership  of  4,308. 

"Our  thirty-three  mission  schools,"  says  Dr.  Wishard, 
''which  have  been  opened  at  one  time  and  another  since 
the  work  began,  with  our  four  academies,  now  doing  full 
and  effective  work,  liave  exerted  an  influence  for  the 
betterment  of  social  and  spiritual  life  in  Utah  that  cannot 
be  measured.  They  have  furnished  us  some  of  our  best 
mission  teachers,  and  sent  others  into  the  public  schools, 
and  are  giving  us  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  They  have 
created  a  demand  for,  and  at  length  have  secured  the 
Westminster  College,  founded  by  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson, 
which  is  to  be  the  crown  of  our  noble  Christian  educational 
work  in  Utah." 


XI 

PIONEER  WORK  IN  NEW  MEXICO  AND  ARIZONA 

"  The  human  race  is  divided  into  two  classes  :  those  who  go  ahead 
and  do  something,  and  those  who  sit  and  enquire,  '  Why  wasn't  it 
done  the  other  way  ?  '  " — Oliver  W.  Holmes. 

WHEN  Sheldon  Jackson  made  his  first  visit  to 
New  Mexico,  near  the  close  of  the  autumn  of 
1870,  he  found  a  country  almost  as  distinct- 
ively Mexican  in  its  language,  customs,  civilization,  and 
methods  of  labour  as  when  it  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States,  more  than  a  score  of  years  before.  With  the  busy 
outside  world  teeming  with  life  and  energy,  there  was  no 
direct  communication  by  rail  or  boat.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  one  or  two  stage  lines,  which  had  been  recently 
established,  the  typical  mode  of  conveyance  was  by  the 
patient  burro,  or  the  lumbering  ox  cart,  with  solid  wood 
wheels,  which  had  served  in  turn  without  appreciable 
change  in  construction  the  men  of  every  generation  from 
the  days  of  the  Spanish  occupation.  The  methods  of 
agriculture  were  as  primitive  as  in  the  lands  of  the  East : 
and  the  various  imj)lements  of  agriculture  and  manufac- 
ture were  as  rude  and  crude  as  those  which  were  in  use 
among  the  Indian  tribes  about  them.  Up  to  this  date, 
no  attempt  had  been  made  to  establish  public  schools, 
and  for  some  time  afterwards,  when  an  effort  was  made 
to  introduce  them,  the  instruction  given  was  almost 
wholly  in  the  hands,  and  under  the  direction,  of  the 
Jesuit  priests. 

Through  a  long  course  of  training  under  such  influences 
the  minds  of  the  people  had  been  dwarfed  and  their  wills 

219 


220  SHELDON  JACKSON 

enslaved.  The  effects  which  were  manifest  on  every 
hand  were  gross  illiteracy,  debasing  immorality,  childish 
superstition,  and  a  low  grade  of  intellectual  development 
among  the  common  people.  Salvation  by  works  and 
expiation  for  sin  by  penances,  and  self-inflicted  suffering 
were  almost  universally  accepted  as  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  which  for  genera- 
tions had  claimed  their  allegiance  and  directed  their 
worship.  And,  for  lack  of  knowledge,  pagan  rights  and 
Christian  ordinances  were  strangely  interblended. 

The  native  population  of  New  Mexico,  which  at  this 
time  numbered  about  ninety  thousand,  was  made  up  of 
three  distinct  groups : 

The  first  and  largest  was  the  Mexican.  The  name 
stands  for  the  mixed  race  of  the  country,  and  every  shade 
of  colour  and  type  of  nationality,  from  the  pure  Castil- 
lian  to  the  Indian  of  the  Montezuma  dynasties,  were 
represented  in  this  group.  It  included  every  grade  of 
intellectual  and  moral  development,  also ;  but  the  con- 
dition of  the  masses  was  indicative  of  a  long  process  of 
moral  debasement  and  a  sad  lack  of  the  enlightening, 
uplifting  influence  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Of  the  Mexican  women,  very  few  could  read  or  write, 
and  five-sixths  of  the  children  were  growing  up  without 
any  of  the  advantages  of  an  ordinary  school  education. 

The  second  group  was  the  remnant  of  the  mysterious 
aboriginal  race,  known  as  the  Pueblo  Indians.  They 
were  located  in  eighteen  pueblos  of  curious  construction 
originally  constructed  for  defense.  Before  the  days  of 
civilized  warfare  they  were  practically  impregnable. 
Each  story  of  these  communal  houses,  frequently  built  on 
the  summit  or  shelf  of  cliffs,  rose  in  successive  terraces, 
the  upper  levels  being  narrower  than  the  lower.  The 
only  approach  to  the  lower  stories  was  by  meaiDS  of  lad- 
ders, which  could  be  withdrawn  in  time  of  danger.    Each 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  NEW  MEXICO      221 

pueblo  was  an  Indian  town  contracted  into  one  great 
building  containing  many  separate  cells  or  habitations. 
The  residents  were  governed  by  rulers  of  the  patriarchal 
type,  and  from  generation  to  generation  enjoyed  a  com- 
munity of  goods  and  interests.  While  nominally  Roman 
Catholic,  they  were  pagan  in  belief  and  practice.  They 
worshipped  the  sun,  and  also  their  ancestors,  with  mys- 
terious rites  and  incantations  closely  resembling  the  old 
ceremonies  and  sacrifices  of  Baal  worship.  Many  of 
them  looked  forward  to  the  coming  of  Montezuma,  and, 
like  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico,  they  had  risen  to  a  higher 
plane  of  civilization,  especially  in  the  line  of  industrial 
art,  than  any  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  around  them. 

The  third  group  included  all  the  nomadic  Indian  tribes 
of  the  country.  They  resembled  the  Indians  of  the  plains, 
and  had  nothing  in  common  with  the  residents  of  the 
pueblos.  All  told,  they  did  not  number  more  than  fif- 
teen or  twenty  thousand,  but  they  were  savage  and  relent- 
less in  their  desultory  modes  of  warfare,  and  for  several 
years  were  a  menace  to  the  explorers  and  early  settlers 
of  the  territory.  The  combined  force  of  the  aborigines, 
of  both  of  the  above  mentioned  groups,  was  about  one- 
fifth  of  the  population. 

Except  the  affairs  connected  with  the  administration 
of  the  government  there  was  but  little  at  this  time  to 
attract  the  adventurers  or  home-seekers  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  A  few  of  its  best  and  worst  representatives 
wore  to  be  found  at  Santa  Fe,  or  in  settlements  connected 
with  the  army  posts,  but,  apart  from  these,  the  actual 
residents  of  American  birth  were,  in  point  of  numbers,  a 
very  insignificant  element  of  the  population. 

While  the  field  itself,  throughout  its  vast  extent,  was 
distinctively  foreign  missionary  ground,  its  population 
being  alien  in  faith,  language,  customs,  education,  and 
sympathies,  it  was  also  included  within  the  bounds  and 


222  SHELDON  JACKSON 

under  the  care  of  a  newly-organized  presbytery  and  synod, 
every  rood  of  which  was  recognized  as  home  mission  ter- 
ritory. It  was,  in  a  word,  the  meeting-place  of  both 
branches  and  departments  of  the  missionary  work  of  the 
Church ;  hence,  it  was  inevitable  that  new  problems 
should  grow  out  of  this  anomalous  condition ;  and  that 
new  methods  and  agencies  should  be  utilized  to  solve 
them.  As  the  advance  agent  of  the  Home  Board,  and 
of  the  synod,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  concerned  mainly 
with  the  magnitude  of  the  task  before  him  and  the  most 
direct  methods  of  accomplishing  it.  His  first  trip  to  New 
Mexico  included  Santa  Fe,  the  ancient  capital  of  the  ter- 
ritory. At  this  time,  the  only  available  mode  of  travel 
was  the  stage-coach  from  Denver.  The  record  of  the 
journey  is  condensed  into  a  single  sentence  in  his  note- 
book, under  date  of  August  26,  1870  : — "To  New  Mexico 
by  stage  and  return  1,000  miles."  At  Santa  Fe,  he 
found  congenial  associates  and  a  cordial  welcome  at  the 
home  of  the  Eev.  D.  F.  McFarland,  who  opened  the  first 
mission  in  the  territory,  under  commission  of  the  Board 
of  Domestic  Missions  (O.  S),  November  22,  1886.  In 
after  years,  the  widow  of  this  devoted  missionary  accom- 
panied Dr.  Jackson  on  his  first  journey  to  Alaska,  and 
took  charge  of  the  mission  established  by  him  in  that  far 
away  Northland. 

In  the  autumn  of  1872,  Dr.  Jackson  visited  Fort  Gar- 
land, and  Taos,  New  Mexico.  At  the  first  named  point 
he  preached  and  administered  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  At  Taos  he  was  the  guest  of  Mrs.  Kit  Carson, 
the  widow  of  the  celebrated  scout  and  guide  of  the 
Fremont  expedition  across  the  Eocky  Mountains. 

For  the  reasons  already  given,  the  growth  of  New 
Mexico  was  slow  until  near  the  middle  of  the  decade, 
when  the  discovery  of  its  mineral  wealth  and  the  opening 
up  of  its  remote  sections  to  travel  and  traffic,  by  rail- 


Pioneer   Missionaries   in    Colorado,    New    Mexico,    Oregon,    Wash- 
ington, Nevada  and  California. 

{Fur  iidDU's  sec  Appendix,  page  4S1.     Group  5.) 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  NEW  MEXICO      223 

roads  and  other  modern  modes  of  conveyance,  made 
it  a  more  desirable  place  of  residence  and  largely 
reinforced  its  population  of  English-speaking  people. 
In  October,  1871,  the  Presbytery  of  Santa  Fe,  which 
covered  the  whole  territory,  reported  only  two  churches 
and  five  ministers.  One  of  this  number  was  a  chap- 
lain of  the  United  States  Army,  two  were  pastors  of 
home  mission  churches,  and  two  were  missionaries  to  the 
Navajo  Indians.  Beside  these,  there  were  six  ministers 
belonging  to  other  connections  or  denominations,  mak- 
ing in  all  a  missionary  force  of  eleven  representatives  of 
the  Protestant  Church. 

During  this  period  of  slow  development,  the  superin- 
tendent kept  in  close  touch  with  the  work  by  correspond- 
ence and  gave  his  time  for  travel  mainly  to  other  i)ortions 
of  the  field.  Meanwhile,  he  was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to 
secure  funds  for  those  who  were  labouring  in  the  territory. 
By  public  addresses,  and  through  the  columns  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  Fresbyteinan,  he  di'cw  attention  to  its  de- 
plorable condition,  the  necessity  for  organized  effort,  and 
a  new  departure  in  the  methods  of  work,  in  order  to  meet 
the  condition  of  the  unreached  masses  of  its  native 
population.  From  the  first  he  saw  the  inconsistency  and 
inadequacy  of  the  attempt  to  evangelize  this  territory,  al- 
ready under  the  care  of  a  regularly  constituted  presbytery, 
through  the  agency  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 
He  was  firmly  convinced,  also,  that  it  was  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time  until  the  Church  at  large  would  realize  this 
and  make  suitable  provision  for  the  enlargement  of  the 
work,  as  it  was  doing  in  every  other  portion  of  the  home 
field. 

Through  the  efficient  aid  of  some  of  the  woman's  mis- 
sionary societies  of  the  East,  funds  had  been  already 
secured  for  the  establishment  of  schools  at  two  of  the  most 
important  i^oints,  and,  in  view  of  the  increasing  interest 


224  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Diiiuifested  in  this  field,  the  Board  felt  justified,  at  the 
opeuiD^  of  the  year  1875,  iu  sending  Dr.  Jackson  on  a 
more  extensive  tour  of  exploration,  with  a  view  to  the 
immediate  establishment  of  missions  among  the  Mexican, 
Pueblo,  and  Indian  population  of  the  country. 

The  5th  of  July  did  not  seem  to  be  a  very  favourable 
time  for  the  beginning  of  a  journey  southward  almost  to 
the  borders  of  Mexico,  but  the  exigencies  of  the  service 
did  not  admit  of  much  choice  of  time  or  place.  Hence, 
with  two  overcoats  for  the  mountain  section  of  the  tour, 
and  the  lightest  of  summer  clothing  for  the  hot,  dusty 
plain  of  the  lowland  sections,  he  took  his  departure  at 
the  date  above  mentioned.  By  this  time  the  Denver  and 
Eio  Grande  road  was  completed  as  far  as  Pueblo,  where 
the  stage  was  taken  for  the  remainder  of  the  long  jour- 
ney. In  Southern  Colorado,  black  rain-clouds  swept  over 
the  mountains,  discharging  their  contents  for  a  time  in 
heavy  showers  which  swept  down  the  canons  and  gull  eys, 
making  the  roadway  insecure,  and  greatly  impeding  the 
progress  of  the  coach.  A  report  that  a  portion  of  the 
road  over  the  Eaton  Pass  had  been  washed  out  reached 
the  conductor  about  midnight,  and  orders  were  given  to 
wait  at  a  wayside  station  until  daybreak.  This  delay 
gave  Dr.  Jackson  the  opportunity  to  breakfast  at  one 
oclock,  A.  M.,  after  which  he  rolled  his  greatcoat  around 
him  and  slept  soundly  for  two  hours  on  a  billiard  table  of 
the  hostelry.  At  four  A.  M.  the  journey  was  resumed. 
Near  the  summit  of  the  Pass,  the  territorial  line  was 
crossed  into  New  Mexico.  At  Bed  Eiver  station,  where 
General  Kearney  and  his  army  of  invasion  made  their 
first  camp  in  New  Mexico,  the  coach  stopped  for  dinner. 
From  this  point  the  route  led  southward  through  Las 
Vegas,  Santa  Fe,  and  Albuquerque,  to  Silver  City,  the 
objective  point  of  the  long  journey.  At  every  crossing, 
the  streams  were  flooded,  and  in  one  instance  a  Mexican 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  NEW  MEXICO      225 

■was  hired  to  ford  the  stream  in  advance  of  the  coach  to 
guide  the  course  of  the  driver.  On  the  preceding  Satur- 
day the  coach  was  washed  away,  in  attempting  to  cross 
tliis  ford,  the  driver  was  drowned,  and  the  mail  destroyed. 
One  section  of  the  journey,  a  stretch  of  ninety  miles, 
known  as  the  "  Jornado  del  Muerto  "  (the  journey  of 
death)  has  been  for  generations  the  terror  of  all  who 
were  called  to  pass  that  way.  Formerly,  there  was  but 
one  spring  of  water  across  its  whole  extent,  and  this  was 
several  miles  from  the  road.  Many  travellers  have  per- 
ished with  thirst  in  attempting  to  cross  this  desert  with- 
out a  sufficient  water-supply,  and  the  bones  of  scores  of 
animals  still  mark  the  course,  which  men  have  followed 
for  long  ages  across  this  barren  waste.  At  the  date  of 
this  journey,  there  was  a  deep  well  about  midway  along 
the  route  which  some  enterprising  Germans  had  dug,  but 
it  was  necessary  still  to  swing  a  keg  of  water  under  the 
hind  axle  of  the  coach  from  which  to  refresh  the  team  by 
the  way. 

At  a  point  on  one  section  of  the  first  great  overland 
route  to  California,  the  occupants  of  the  coach  were 
notified  that  they  were  just  1,200  miles  from  St.  Louis, 
and  the  same  distance  from  San  Francisco.  It  is  said  that 
in  the  early  days  the  stages  ran  this  distance — 2,400  miles, 
— across  mountains,  deserts,  and  treacherous  streams, 
with  such  regularity  that  during  twelve  mouths  there  was 
not  a  single  failure  to  deliver  the  mail  on  schedule  time  ; 
and  every  day,  for  two  winter  months,  the  stages  from 
San  Francisco  and  St.  Louis  met  within  three  hundred 
yards  of  this  lialf-way  point.  From  this  section  of  the 
journey  to  Silver  City,  its  terminus  southward,  the  route 
was  through  the  country  of  the  treacherous  Apaches. 
The  discomforts  of  these  long  night-journeys  were  many 
and  not  infrequently  of  an  unusually  aggravating  char- 
acter.    The    first    night    out,    after    crossing  into  New 


226  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Mexico,  Jackson  had  the  coach  to  himself.  After  supper 
he  secured  liermission  to  place  some  hay  ia  the  bottom  of 
the  coach  and  upon  this  he  spread  his  blanket  and  made 
the  best  of  the  situation.  It  was,  at  best,  as  he  puts  it, 
''a  sleeping  or  attempting  to  sleep,  under  difficulties.  A 
sudden  lurch  would  jam  my  head  against  the  farther  end 
of  the  coach,  or  a  jolt  toss  me  up,  to  come  down  with  a 
thud,  while  constrained  and  cramped  positions  brought 
on  nightmare."  Another  night,  while  on  this  journey. 
Dr.  Jackson  was  rudely  awakened  by  a  crash,  followed 
by  a  volley  of  oaths.  In  the  darkness,  his  coach  had 
collided  with  the  up-coach  in  a  ravine.  The  lamps  in 
both  were  smashed,  and  wheels  and  whiffletrees  were 
securely  interlocked.  After  considerable  delay,  the 
coaches  were  extricated  from  this  perilous  situation  and 
went  their  ways. 

Some  months  before  his  arrival  at  Silver  City  the  super- 
intendent had  secured  a  commission  from  the  Home  Board 
for  the  Eev.  W.  W.  Curtis,  who  was  already  on  the 
ground  and  had  received  a  hearty  welcome  from  those  who 
were  favourable  to  the  establishment  of  a  missionary  sta- 
tion. He  was  then  the  only  Protestant  minister  in  a  tract 
of  country  whose  area  was  nearly  300  square  miles.  His 
nearest  railway  town  and  station  was  Austin,  some  750 
miles  distant. 

The  county  court,  which  was  in  session  when  Dr.  Jack- 
son arrived,  showed  its  appreciation  of  his  labours  on  be- 
half of  the  country  by  adjourning  that  he  might  have  the 
use  of  the  room  occupied  by  the  court  for  a  preaching 
service.  After  making  the  ascent  of  Mount  Pinos  Altos, 
in  the  main  range  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific, 
under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Curtis,  he  started  on  the  return 
journey.  At  Las  Cruces  he  spent  the  Sabbath  and 
preached  at  this  place  and  at  Mesilla  to  a  little  company 
of  American  residents,  who  were  as  sheep  without  a  shep- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  227 

liertl.  Seven  days  and  six  nights  were  occupied  on  the 
return  journey.  On  the  round  trip  twenty-four  days  and 
fifteen  nights  M'cre  spent  in  the  stage  or  on  horseback. 
One  object  of  this  long  journey,  as  already  intimated,  was 
to  visit  some  of  the  pueblos  and  secure  such  information 
concerning  their  residents  as  would  be  helpful  in  the  es- 
tablishing of  one  or  more  missions  among  them.  The  im- 
portance of  this  work  was  accentuated  by  the  fact  that 
in  the  allotment  of  the  several  Indian  tribes  to  the  various 
Christian  denominations,  by  the  government,  the  Pueblos 
had  been  assigned  to  the  Presbyterian  Church.  With  the 
cooperation  of  General  Gregg  of  the  United  States  Army, 
who  furnished  horses  from  the  post  at  Santa  Fe,  Dr.  Jack- 
son, accompanied  by  the  missionary  pastor  at  this  point, 
the  Rev.  George  G.  Smith,  made  a  detour  of  about  seventy 
miles  from  his  route  to  visit  the  Pueblos  at  Santa  Cruci 
and  Taos. 

Arizona 

In  the  spring  of  1875,  by  enactment  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, the  territory  of  Arizona  was  added  to  the  Synod 
of  Colorado.  This  gave  to  its  superintendent  of  missions 
a  new  field  to  explore.  It  comprised  an  area  of  114,000 
square  miles,  and  throughout  its  vast  extent  there  was 
not,  at  this  time,  apart  from  the  military  posts,  a  single 
Protestant  minister  of  the  Gospel. 

In  the  spring  of  1876,  Dr.  Jackson  made  provision  for 
a  visit  to  this  distant  territory  by  an  appeal  issued  to 
individual  contributors.  This  was  done  with  the  consent 
of  the  Board,  for  the  reason  that  no  fnnds  could  be  spared 
from  its  treasury  at  that  time  for  this  purpose. 

Before  he  started  on  the  journey,  he  had  been  success- 
ful also  in  interesting  the  "Ladies'  Union  Missionary 
School  Association,"  located  at  Albany,  New  York,  in 
the  pueblo  at  Laguna.     Here  it  was  proposed  to  establish 


228  SHELDON  JACKSON 

a  mission,  aud  the  officers  of  the  society  had  pledged  a 
sufficient  auiuuut  to  support  a  teacher,  in  case  a  suitable 
man  could  be  found. 

In  the  good  providence  of  God,  one  who  was  admirably 
adapted  to  the  field  was  found  by  Dr.  Jackson,  and  it  was 
a  part  of  his  errand  to  locate  him  on  it  while  en  route  to 
Arizona.  The  man  selected  for  this  difficult  field  was  the 
Eev.  John  Menaul.  In  1870,  he  had  been  sent  by  the 
Foreign  Board  to  the  Navajo  Mission,  where  he  remained 
until  the  spring  of  1875.  The  experience  which  he  had 
among  the  Navajos,  and  later  for  a  few  months  among  the 
Apaches,  was  a  valuable  preparation  for  the  initial  work 
of  instruction  and  evangelization  at  the  pueblo  of  Laguna. 
In  a  remarkable  manner,  also,  the  way  had  been  prepared 
for  the  coming  of  Mr.  Menaul  to  this  people.  As  far  back 
as  the  year  1852,  the  Eev.  Samuel  Gorman,  a  Baptist 
missionary,  had  found  his  way  to  the  pueblo,  but  for 
nine  months  could  not  get  access  to  the  people,  because 
of  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  priests,  who  had  usm'ped  au- 
thority over  them  in  all  things  temporal,  as  well  as  in 
things  spiritual.  At  length,  the  missionary  and  his  wife 
were  introduced  to  the  council  of  the  village  by  Captain 
H.  L.  Dodge,  of  the  regular  army,  a  Christian  gentleman 
in  whom  the  Indians  had  implicit  confidence.  He  told 
them  that  they  were  his  friends,  who  had  come  to  do  them 
good  by  preaching  the  Gospel  and  teaching  their  children. 
After  carefully  considering  the  matter  in  council,  they 
consented  to  receive  Mr.  Gorman  among  them  and  for- 
mally adopted  him  and  his  family  as  children  of  the 
pueblo.  In  the  enjoyment  of  this  privilege  he  was  free  to 
go  in  and  out  among  them  aud  to  take  up  a  small  tract 
of  unoccupied  land  for  his  own  use  ;  but  the  long  domi- 
nant influence  of  the  priests  was  manifested  in  every  ef- 
fort which  lie  attempted  to  make  for  the  instruction  or 
elevation  of  the  people.     For  six  years  he  tried  to  get  the 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  229 

children  to  come  to  a  school  which  he  opened,  and  failed. 
Their  j)arents  were  friendly  to  him,  but  would  not  require 
their  children  to  come.  The  fear  of  the  priests,  with 
whom  he  had  many  a  conflict,  had  its  influence  upon  his 
hearers  as  Sabbath  by  Sabbath  he  faithfully  preached  the 
Gospel. 

On  several  occasions  the  rulers  of  the  Indians  were 
compelled  to  whip  the  peoj^le  for  failure  to  attend  mass. 
One  morning  he  witnessed  the  whii^ping  of  forty-two 
women  and  children  at  the  church  door,  because  in  some 
way  they  had  offended  the  priest. 

They  were  ordered  to  bare  their  backs,  says  Mr.  Gor- 
man, and  then  the  lashes  were  laid  on  until  the  priest  who 
stood  by  was  satisfied.  Amid  such  influences  and  deter- 
mined opj)ositiou,  this  faithful  missionary  laboured  until 
the  spring  of  1859,  when  he  accepted  an  invitation  from 
the  Mission  Board  of  his  chiu-ch  to  become  the  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Santa  Fe.  As  the  direct  result  of  his  la- 
bours one  woman  and  three  promineut  men  of  the  pueblo 
were  converted,  one  of  whom  became  his  interpreter. 
This  man,  a  devout  student  of  the  Bible,  was  afterwards 
licensed  to  preach.  When  Mr.  Gorman  went  away,  the 
mission  was  given  into  his  charge.  He  continued  to 
preach  until  his  death,  in  July,  1861.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  also  governor  of  the  pueblo.  From  this 
date  until  the  establishment  of  the  Presbyterian  mission 
—five  years  later — they  were  destitute  of  all  religious  in- 
struction. Meanwhile,  the  leaven  of  the  Gospel  had  been 
silently  working,  and  there  was  a  deep-seated  desire  to 
have  another  teacher  of  the  Gospel  like  the  good  man 
who  had  testified  of  the  truth  by  his  life  as  well  as  by 
his  words.  In  1870,  a  young  woman  ^  passed  through  that 
region  on  her  way  to  the  JSTavajo  Mission.  The  people  of 
the  Laguna  pueblo  had  heard  in  some  way  that  she  was 

'Miss  C,  A.  Gaston. 


230  SHELDON  JACKSON 

coming  as  a  missionary  to  them,  and  they  sent  out  an 
official  delegation  to  meet  the  stage  and  welcome  her. 
When  they  heard  that  she  was  going  farther,  they  were 
much  disappointed  and  pleaded  with  her  to  remain  with 
them  to  tell  them  of  the  Saviour  and  teach  their  children. 
In  the  wonder-working  of  God's  i^rovidence  this  woman 
was  now  coming  back  to  them,  after  six  years  of  waiting, 
as  the  wife  of  the  Eev.  John  Menaul. 

By  previous  appointment.  Dr.  Jackson  met  the  Indian 
agent,  Mr.  B.  M.  Thomas,  Mr.  Menaul,  and  the  Eev. 
George  Smith  at  Santa  Fe.  On  the  23d  of  March,  he 
started  with  these  friends  in  a  government  ambulance  to 
establish  the  mission  at  Laguna.  The  journey,  which  oc- 
cupied three  days,  was  broken  for  a  few  hours  at  Albu- 
querque, a  place  of  ^prospective  importance,  whereapreach- 
iug  service  was  held  at  which  the  superintendent  and  Mr. 
Smith  took  part.  At  sundown  on  Saturday  evening,  the 
little  party  arrived  at  the  village  of  Laguna  and  received 
a  cordial  welcome  from  the  lieutenant  governor  who  was 
presiding  during  the  temjjorary  absence  of  the  governor. 
Messengers  were  sent  out  for  all  the  absent  officials,  and 
runners  dispatched  to  the  little  bands  of  Indians  who 
were  out  with  the  flocks  and  herds  to  summon  them  to  a 
council  on  the  following  day. 

At  the  appointed  time,  the  Indians  poured  into  the 
assembly  room,  filling  every  vacant  seat  and  occupying 
all  the  standing-room  from  the  platform  to  the  door.  The 
governor,  the  lieutenant-governor,  the  war  captain,  and 
other  officials  occupied  the  left  hand  side  of  the  platform, 
and  the  honourable  women,  the  wives  and  children  of  the 
chief  men  of  the  Pueblo,  the  left.  In  the  centre  were 
seated  the  missionaries,  the  agent,  and  two  interpreters. 
Dr.  Jackson  made  the  first  address  after  the  council  was 
regularly  opened.  He  expressed  his  pleasure  in  meeting 
with  so  many  residents  of  the  village  ;  described  the  two 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  231 

classes  of  white  people,  those  that  were  made  good  by  the 
teaching  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  those  who  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge God  in  their  lives  and  actions.  He  empha- 
sized the  thought  also  that  those  who  were  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  had  a  desire  to  lead  others  into  the  good 
way  and  that,  for  this  reason,  the  good  women  of  Albany, 
many  days'  travel  to  the  sun-rising,  when  they  had  heard 
that  the  Laguna  jyeople  had  no  Bible  and  no  teacher,  met 
together  in  council  and  had  sent  to  them  Minister  Menaul 
to  give  them  the  Bible  and  teach  them  about  God  and 
His  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  who  had  come  into  the  world  to 
save  sinners.  Addresses  following  were  made  by  Mr. 
Smith,  Mr.  Thomas,  the  Indian  agent,  and  Mr.  Menaul. 
To  all  these,  the  audience  gave  heed  as  if  spellbound. 
When,  at  the  close,  the  agent  turned  to  the  governor  and 
asked  what  response  his  people  desired  to  make,  their 
eager  countenances  were  lightened  up,  their  blankets 
were  thrown  back,  and  in  an  instant  they  were  all  talking 
and  gesticulating  at  once.  After  they  had  been  quieted 
down,  the  governor  announced  that  the  people  had  said, 
''They  were  glad,  very  glad,  that  the  good  women  of 
Albany  had  sent  them  a  teacher.  Now  they  could  learn 
to  be  good,  and  they  would  do  as  the  good  man  had  told 
them.     It  was  all  good,  very  good." 

Then  followed  a  prayer  of  thanksgiving  and  the  bene- 
diction, while  the  whole  company  reverently  bowed  their 
heads.  Next  morning  another  council  was  held,  at  which 
land  was  granted  for  mission  premises  and  arrangements 
were  made  for  building  an  irrigation  ditch  to  connect 
with  the  ground  which  the  missionary  desired  to  bring 
under  cultivation.  Leaving  Mr.  Menaul  to  begin  his 
work  under  vSuch  favourable  circumstances,  the  rest  of  the 
party  started  on  the  return  journey  at  an  early  hour  on 
Tuesday  morning.  The  lieutenant-governor  showed  his 
regard  for  their  kindness  to  his  people  by  escorting  them 


232  SHELDON  JACKSON 

some  twelve  miles  on  their  way.  A  few  mouths  later, 
Mr.  Menaul  wrote  :  ' '  The  work  here  is  progressing  be- 
yond my  highest  expectations.  The  Lagunas  are  in  a 
fair  way  to  abandon  the  last  forms  of  heathen  dances  and 
devil-worship.  The  church  is  crowded  every  Sabbath. 
For  lack  of  seats,  very  many  of  the  people  have  to  stand 
up  during  the  services."  In  the  month  of  October,  a 
school  was  started,  with  thirty  scholars.  Thus  was  the 
first  mission  begun,  with  its  school  and  other  equipments, 
aiuoDg  the  aborigines  of  the  pueblos,  the  remnants,  as 
some  think,  of  the  ancient  Aztec  race. 

The  Ladies'  Society  at  Albany  supported  the  church 
and  school  at  Laguua  for  three  years,  when  it  was  turned 
over  to  the  care  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church. 

At  Santa  Fe,  Sheldon  Jackson  took  the  coach  for  a 
continuous  ride  to  Tucson,  which  was  at  that  time  the 
capital  of  the  territory  of  Arizona.  A  one-seated  "buck- 
board  "  was  substituted  for  the  coach  at  Silver  City.  The 
first  night's  experience  in  this  conveyance  is  thus  de- 
scribed by  this  long-suffering  traveller: — "There  were 
four  hundred  pounds  of  mail  heaped  on  in  front  and  back, 
so  that  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  sit  bolt  upright. 
Once  I  started  to  crouch  down  between  the  seat  and 
dashboard,  but,  small  as  I  am,  it  could  not  be  done  with 
comfort.  So  strapping  myself  to  the  seat  lest  I  should 
get  asleep  and  fall  off,  I  got  through  with  the  night  as 
best  I  could.  There  were  no  houses  between  stations. 
The  first  stop  west  of  Silver  City  was  thirty-five  miles, 
which  we  made  in  five  hours.  There  we  took  supper — 
two  fried  eggs,  fried  beef,  and  a  cup  of  coffee.  The 
charge  for  this  wayside  meal  was  one  dollar.  There  was 
a  canon  at  this  place  which  showed  up  distinctly  in  the 
lig-ht  of  the  full  moon.  Our  next  house  and  station  was 
twenty-two  miles  distant.     "We  had  a  pair  of  wild  horses 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  233 

and  made  the  distance  in  three  hours.  At  this  station 
there  were  four  men  who  were  evidently  equipped  for  in- 
stant attack  or  defense.  Their  house  was  an  armoury  of 
guns  and  revolvers." 

At  Point  of  Rocks,  a  station  eighty-five  miles  from  the 
stopping-place  last  mentioned,  a  covered  wagon  was  se- 
cured and  here  two  more  travellers  were  booked  for  the 
remaining  portion  of  the  journey. 

After  six  days  and  five  nights  of  continuous  travel,  in 
coach  and  buckboard,  Dr.  Jackson  reached  Tucson,  and 
so  far  yielded  to  the  demands  of  overstrained  nerves  and 
muscles  as  to  take  a  daylight  nap  of  three  or  four  hours. 
*'  About  3  P.  M.,"  as  he  puts  it,  "  got  up,  washed,  had  a 
good  cup  of  tea,  and  felt  better."  Not  long  afterwards, 
his  search  for  Presbyterians  was  rewarded  by  the  dis- 
covery '  of  six  communicant  members.  Under  date  of 
April  12th,  he  writes  : — 

''  Last  Sabbath,  I  held  the  first  Presbyterian  service  that 
was  ever  held  in  Tucson,  and  organized  the  first  Presby- 
terian, and  second  Protestant  church,  ever  organized  in  the 
territory.  Services  were  held  in  the  court-house,  with  an 
attendance  of  about  one  hundred.  J.  B.  Clum,  formerly 
elder  at  Santa  Fc,  was  made  ruling  elder.  Ex-Governor 
McCormick  gives  the  church  eligible  lots  for  building. 
Mr.  Clum  presents  them  with  a  good  cabinet  organ. 
They  hope  to  build,  by  next  fall,  an  adobe  church,  with 
board  floor.  The  whole  Protestant  element  of  the  com- 
munity gives  the  new  movement  their  hearty  symi)athy. 
Sabbath  afternoon,  the  governor  was  invited  in  to  dine 
with  me,  and  in  the  evening  we  had  a  praise  meeting. 
They  have  a  number  of  good  singers  among  the  citizens. 
On  Monday  news  was  brought  in  of  an  outbreak  of  the 
Chir-ai-chuai,  Apache  Indians.  We  staged  it  through 
their  reservation  all  day  last  Thursday,  and  on  the  next 
day  they  were  on  the  war-path.     The  troops  are  out  after 


234  SHELDON  JACKSON 

them,  and  couriers  have  been  sent  out  to  warn  the  scat- 
tered farming  settlements." 

The  above  mentioned  service  was  thus  advertized  in  the 
Saturday  morning  issue  of  one  of  the  Tucson  daily 
papers : — 

"  The  word  of  God  will  be  preached  in  the  court-house 
to-morrow  morning  at  10:30  A.  M.  "We  bespeak  a 
large  attendance.  These  seasons  of  grace  are  rare  at 
Tucson  to  the  Protestant  residents.  The  Eev.  Mr. 
Jackson  conies  highly  recommended.  The  ladies  will 
certainly  be  there.  They  are  always  found  in  every 
good  word  and  work.  Let  them  suggest  to  their  husbands 
and  male  friends  for  once  to  neglect  the  everlasting  reck- 
onings of  profit  and  loss,  or  to  forego  the  last  sensation, 
the  problems  of  politics,  the  comic  weekly,  the  agile  bil- 
liard ball,  the  seductive  sevens- up,  or  the  Sunday  niorn- 
iug's  nap,  and  wend  their  way  to  the  house  of  worship." 

On  Monday  evening,  the  journey  by  stage  was  resumed. 
At  Montezuma  station,  Dr.  Jackson  sent  an  Indian  courier 
to  the  Pima  Agency  for  an  ambulance.  While  waiting  for 
it  he  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  visit  the 
famous  ruins  of  Casa  Grande,  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 
Eeturning  to  Montezuma  he  found  the  ambulance  was 
ready  and  at  once  started  for  the  agency,  fourteen  miles 
distant.  The  following  day  (Wednesday)  after  securing 
some  valuable  information  concerning  this  tribe,  and  some 
good  specimens  of  Pima  pottery,  idols,  stone  weapons,  etc., 
he  took  the  stage  northward  for  Prescott,  a  promisiug 
town  which  afterwards  became  the  capital  of  the  territory. 
In  the  valley  of  the  Salt  Eiver,  a  name  suggestive  of  any- 
thing but  fertility  and  prosperity,  he  found  beautifully 
cultivated  farms,  which  had  been  cropped  for  three  hun- 
dred years  without  any  diminution  of  their  fertility.  At 
Wickenburg,  he  was  detained  from  6  a.  m.  until  6  P.  m. 
to  make  connections  with  the  stage  for  Prescott.     The 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  235 

ouly  place  to  sit  down  during  this  long  day  was  in  the 
billiard  and  drinking  saloon,  with  the  most  villaiuoas, 
cutthroat  crew  with  which  he  had  come  in  contact  on  the 
trip.  Two  or  three  days  were  spent  at  Prescott  looking 
over  the  ground  and  preparing  the  way  foramission  station 
and  an  ultimate  organization  of  a  church.  A  few  months 
later,  the  Rev.  John  A.  Merrill,  a  graduate  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Theological  Seminary,  was  secured  as  a  su^jply  for  this 
station,  and  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Anderson,  who  had  laboured 
successfully  for  some  time  in  Colorado,  was  commissioned 
for  Tucson.  For  a  while  after  his  arrival,  Mr.  Merrill 
paid  for  himself  and  wife,  one  hundred  and  thirty  dollars 
per  month  for  board  and  the  use  of  one  room.  This  was 
five  dollars  more  per  month  than  the  salary  allowed  him 
by  the  Board.  His  travelling  expenses  to  the  field 
amounted  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  dollars  besides. 
In  the  face  of  difficulties  and  self-denials  such  as  these, 
the  first  churches  in  this  new  empire  of  the  Southwest 
were  planted  and  nourished.  Dr.  Jackson  founditeasier  at 
this  time  to  return  by  way  of  the  Pacific  coast.  The  jour- 
ney to  "Seven  Palms,"  in  California,  the  southern  ter- 
minus of  the  railroad, — was  made  by  stage-coach  without 
accident  or  detention.  It  was  a  dreary  ride,  however, 
over  waterless  deserts  and  drifting  sands,  so  heavy  in 
places  that  frequently  for  hours  the  six  horse  team  "could 
not  get  off  a  walk."  During  two  of  the  nights  spent  on 
this  journey,  he  strapped  himself  to  the  top  of  the  coach, 
on  deck,  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  the  luxury  of 
stretching  his  limbs  at  full  length  while  he  slept.  At 
Seven  Palms,  his  long  stage  ride,  of  well-nigh  1,800 
miles,  was  ended.  It  was  a  welcome  relief  to  exchange 
the  rough  riding  of  the  coach  for  the  cars,  which  left  the 
station  at  11  p.  m.  and  arrived  at  Los  Angeles  at  10  a.  m. 
the  next  day.  His  arrival  in  San  Francisco,  which  seems 
to  have  followed  closely  upon  the  visit  of  Dom  Pedro, 


28fi  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Emperor  of  Brazil,  is  thus  announced  in  the  Occident  of 
May  4th  :— 

Another  man.  as  marked  in  his  way,  and  whose  influence  will 
not  be  less  lasting  than  an  emperor's,  visited  our  city  last  week, 
the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D. — a  small,  compact,  well-knit, 
sinewy,  sanguine,  sunburnt  young  man.  We  are  surprised  to 
find  in  such  a  form  the  great  rehgious  explorer  and  founder  of 
churches  all  over  the  central  western  section  of  the  United 
States.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  sitting  in  conversation  with  him 
and  our  own  district  missionary,  Rev.  Thomas  Fraser,  who  has 
been  doing  similar  work  in  all  the  vast  region  of  the  West 
coast,  from  Puget  Sound  to  San  Diego.  Some  of  our  Eastern 
brethren  are  opposed  to  this  system  of  district  supervision. 
Those  of  us  familiar  with  these  vast  spiritual  wastes  are  per- 
fectly aware  that  there  is  no  other  possible  means  of 
establishing  mission  work  over  them.  No  man  can  engage  in 
that  war  at  his  own  expense  and  hazard.  No  pastor  can  go  out 
of  his  field,  hundreds  of  miles,  and  give  the  labour  and  time 
needful  to  work  up  these  churches.  In  California  we  were  for 
a  long  period  without  such  labour.  Fields  lost  to  us,  churches 
actually  built  by  us,  and  then  disposed  of,  or  turned  over  to 
other  denominations,  attest  the  result. 

In  the  following  year — 1877 — Dr.  Jackson  made  three 
trips  to  this  remote  section  of  his  vast  missionary  field, 
and,  meanwhile — between  the  first  and  second — explored 
the  regions  beyond  to  the  northwest  as  far  as  Sitka  in 
Alaska.  The  first  trip  was  made  during  the  months  of 
March  and  April.  It  included  a  series  of  tiresome  and 
dangerous  journeys  by  ox  cart  for  five  continuous  days,* 
ambulance  and  on  horseback  to  the  various  settlements  of 
the  Zuni,  Navajo,  Moqui,  and  Jemez  Indians.  The  ob- 
ject of  these  visits  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  missions,  as  soon  as  the  necessary  arrange- 
ment could  be  made  to  man  and  support  them.  A  signifi- 
cant warning,  which  did  not  act  as  a  deterrent,  however, 

'  The  return  journey  was  made  in  the  same  conveyance — making  a 
round  trip  of  ten  days  by  ox  cart. 


Pueblo  of  Ziiiii,   X.  Mix.     A   Round-trii)  of    Two  Weeks  to  Zuni 
by  Drs.  Jackson  and   Mcnanl. 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  237 

was  given  by  Mr.  Menaiil  in  outlining  an  itinerary  for 
this  tour.  "At  present,"  he  wrote,  "there  is  a  baud  of 
some  forty  highwaymen  on  the  road  between  Old  Fort 
Wingate  and  Zuni,  who  are  robbiug  nearly  every  travel- 
ler in  all  this  section  of  the  country,  so  that  travelling  is 
well-nigh  impossible,  except  by  large,  armed  parties.  I 
hope  these  gangs  will  soon  be  broken  up,  at  least  before 
your  time  is  on  to  visit  us."  Fortunately  for  Dr.  Jack- 
son and  his  companion,  Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson, — the  photog- 
rapher and  artist  of  the  Hayden  Survey  party, — who 
secured  a  collection  of  A-aluable  views  illustrative  of  the 
journey,  the  passage  through  this  abode  of  the  forty 
thieves  was  made  without  attack  or  molestation.  In  this 
and  in  several  other  instances,  stages  or  private  convey- 
ances were  held  up  by  Indians  and  road  agents  immedi- 
ately preceding  or  following  the  journey  made  by  this 
hardy  traveller,  but  amid  all  these  dangers  he  seemed  to 
be  shielded  and  guarded  by  an  unseen  hand  and  a  vig- 
ilant, unseen  Watcher  who  never  slept. 

The  experiences  and  impressions  of  this  missionary  tour 
are  briefly  given  in  an  incidental  notice  of  a  meeting  of 
the  Presbytery  of  Colorado,  which  was  held  at  Colorado 
Springs,  May  8th  to  9th.  The  writer,  an  editor  of  one  of 
the  local  papers,  mentions  the  fact  that  the  Darley  brothers 
came  to  the  meeting  across  the  mountains  from  Del  Norte 
and  Lake  City,  a  distance  of  285  miles,  in  a  pony  buggy, 
being  one  week  on  the  way  ;  and,  as  an  offset  to  this, 
adds : — 


The  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson — who  does  not  know  him  ?  the 
Bishop  of  the  Rocky  Mountains — made  his  appearance  on  the 
second  day,  on  his  return  from  a  two  months'  tour  through 
New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  It  is  hard  to  keep  track  of  this 
brother.  It  is  worth  a  man's  life  almost  to  keep  in  sight  even  of 
his  coat-tail,  as  he  glides  around  ihe  mountains  or  plunges  into 
deep  ravines,  or  darts  away  southward  among  a  strange  and 


238  SHELDON  JACKSON 

wild  people.  On  this  trip  he  had  travelled  3,000  miles,  mostly 
in  government  conveyances.  He  brings  sad  tidings  from  an 
unexplored  region,  sad,  because  these  strange  tribes,  the  rem- 
nants, as  some  think,  of  the  Aztec  people,  are  idolaters,  having 
no  knowledge  of  Christ.  He  brought  home  a  number  of  hide- 
ous and  veritable  specimens  of  idols.  He  told  us  he  had  seen 
confined  in  one  coral  three  thousand  children,  four  thousand 
women  and  two  thousand  men  :  in  all  nine  thousand  Navajo 
Indians,  to  be  counted  by  government  officials  preparatory  to 
the  distribution  of  supplies;  yet  not  one  of  the  9,000  had  ever 
heard  of  Christ.  The  Church  needs  just  such  indomitable  pio- 
neers as  Dr.  Jackson  at  the  front. 

On  the  second  journey  of  the  season  to  New  Mexico, 
which  was  made,  as  already  noted,  after  his  return  from 
Alaska,  Dr.  Jackson  was  favoured  with  more  agreeable 
company  than  usually  fell  to  his  lot  on  missionary  jour- 
neys. It  was  a  tour  of  inspection  rather  than  of  explora- 
tion, and  his  comjianions  were  Mrs.  Jackson,  Dr.  Henry 
Kendall,  the  veteran  secretary  of  the  Home  Board,  and 
Mrs.  Kendall.  The  ladies  of  the  party  were  the  repre- 
sentatives of  a  great  company  of  women  who  had  heard 
the  call  for  help  from  this  semi-pagan  section  of  the  land 
and  were  organizing  their  forces,  even  then,  to  undertake 
a  work  which  for  extent  and  efficiency  has  no  parallel  in 
the  history  of  missionary  activities.  Careful  preparation 
was  made  for  this  journey  in  advance  through  the  kind- 
ness of  Indian  agents  and  some  of  the  of&cers  of  the 
army,  who  were  in  a  position  to  offer  transportation  and 
an  escort,  if  necessary.  The  report  that  smallpox  had 
broken  out  in  its  most  virulent  form  at  Santa  Fe  and  in 
some  of  the  pueblos  was  somewhat  of  a  damper  to  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  party  in  preparing  for  the  journey,  but  a 
reassuring  message  from  the  brethren  in  this  portion  of 
the  field  decided  the  question  in  favour  of  making  the  at- 
tempt. Dr.  Kendall  was  somewhat  concerned  to  know 
what  sort  of  a  side-saddle  the  ladies  would  want  for  an 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  239 

eigiity  mile  trip  on  horseback,  but  presumably  this  was 
answered  to  his  satisfaction  by  the  organizer  of  the  party. 
The  journey  included  the  Mexican  villages  of  New 
Mexico,  as  far  south  as  Albucxuerque  and  the  Indian 
pueblos  of  Taos,  Laguna,  and  Jemez.  The  smallpox 
proved  to  be  a  very  real  menace,  for  its  ravages  and  loath- 
some eruptions  were  in  evidence  throughout  a  large  sec- 
tion of  the  country  which  was  visited,  and  in  the  pueblos 
the  party  came  into  very  close  contact  with  those  who 
were  suffering  from  it.  It  is  a  matter  of  record  that  as 
many  persons  died  of  this  disease  in  New  Mexico  during 
this  year  as  of  yellow  fever  in  the  South  in  1878.  "  There 
has  been  no  sadder  sight  in  these  United  States,"  said  Dr. 
Jackson,  in  describing  some  of  the  scenes  which  were  wit- 
nessed on  this  journey,  "  than  the  despair  of  these 
heathen  mothers  as  child  after  child  was  carried  out  from 
their  presence.  Some  prepared  feather  prayers  and 
fastened  them  upon  their  children  in  the  vain  hope  of 
staying  the  ravages  of  the  disease.  Others  threw  them- 
selves upon  the  floor  and  rolled  in  agony  before  their 
wooden  idols,  that  had  eyes  that  could  not  see,  ears  that 
could  not  hear  their  frantic  cries,  and  hands  that  could 
not  save.  And  then  these  poor  cliildless  mothers  sat  in 
their  loneliness  and  despair,  without  comfort,  becnuse  no 
one  had  told  them  of  the  Comforter  ;  without  a  hope,  be- 
cause no  one  had  ever  told  them  of  the  Shepherd  who 
gathers  the  lambs  to  Himself. ' ' 

This  exploration  tour,  with  a  secretary  of  tlie  Board 
for  a  travelling  companion,  resulted  in  an  enlargement  of 
the  work  in  New  Mexico  and  possibly  a  more  sympathetic 
fellowship  with  the  superintendent  in  his  self-denying 
work  on  the  frontier.  In  Dr.  Kendall,  also,  the  church 
had  a  secretary  who  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  who 
had  been  at  the  front  before.  "  If  the  church,"  says  one 
of  the  party,  ''  could  have  seen  how  gracefully  the  senior 


240  SHELDON  JACKSON 

secretary  of  home  missions  can  handle  a  frying-pan  before 
a  camp-fire,  eat  off  a  tin  plate  seated  Indian  fashion,  and 
when  night  comes  roll  uj)  in  a  blanket  and  sleep  on  the 
ground  without  a  tent,  the  coyotes  barking  around  the 
camp,  they  would  recognize  the  same  vigour  that  is  every- 
where manifest  in  home  missions." 

After  a  sojourn  of  nearly  six  weeks  in  New  Mexico, 
Dr.  Jackson  and  his  party  returned  to  Denver,  arriving 
about  the  middle  of  October.  On  the  17th  of  the  same 
month.  Dr.  Henry  K.  Palmer,  a  medical  missionary  from 
the  church  of  Colorado  Springs,  reached  the  Zuni  pueblo, 
with  his  family,  and  opened  amission,  in  accordance  with 
arrangements  made  by  the  missionary  superintendent. 
Soon  after  his  arrival,  he  wrote  :  "  I  do  not  believe  that 
a  more  needy  field  exists  in  the  world,  and  the  work  cor- 
responds to  that  among  the  most  heathenish  of  people. 
There  are  at  least  1,300  souls  in  this  pueblo,  and  no  one  else 
has  ever  attempted  to  gather  them  as  a  portion  of  Christ's 
harvest."  In  this  pueblo.  Dr.  Palmer  faced  the  horrors 
of  the  smallpox  during  the  winter,  and  for  a  time  deaths 
occurred  at  the  rate  of  from  one  to  five  a  day.  The  ex- 
posures and  hardships  incident  to  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
the  beginning  of  his  labours  in  a  field  so  difficult  and  de- 
'  pressing,  seriously  affected  Dr.  Palmer's  health,  and  in 
the  following  spring  he  was  obliged  to  relinquish  his 
work.  Under  date  of  May  6th,  Mr.  Menaul  wrote: 
''  Dr.  Palmer  left  here  on  his  way  home  to  die.  It  is  so 
sad.  He  had  secured  the  confidence  and  love  of  the  peo 
pie  to  a  wonderful  degree,  and  his  work  was  opening  uj) 
with  much  promise."  ''Three  or  four  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  pueblo  followed  Dr.  Palmer  and  his  family  on 
this  homeward  journey  200  miles  and  could  not  speak  of 
their  loss  without  weeping." 

A  few  days  after  his  arrival  in  Denver,  Dr.  Jackson 
started  on  the  third  tour  to  New  Mexico,  with  a  view  to 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  241 

attending  the  fall  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  Santa  F4 
and  completing  some  arrangements  for  other  sections  of 
this  needy  field.  At  Fort  Garland,  New  Mexico,  he  was 
met  by  the  Eev.  Alexander  M.  Darley,  who  had  secured 
a  light  buckboard  with  a  team  of  bronchos  to  take  him 
across  the  mountains  to  Tierra  Amarilla.  In  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Kendall,  under  date  of  November  2d,  some  interest- 
ing experiences  are  given  in  connection  with  this  ride 
over  the  mountains  : — 

A  few  miles  out  from  Garland  there  came  on  a  severe  storm 
of  hail,  snow,  and  sleet,  in  which  we  rode  three  or  four  hours 
without  cover  or  umbrella.  Made  Conejos  the  first  day  and 
put  up  at  a  Mexican  house  where  we  had  coffee  (without  milk), 
stewed  mutton,  and  tortillas  for  supper,  and  the  same  for  break- 
fast. Ten  miles  west  of  Conejos,  we  commenced  climbing  the 
mountains,  and  from  thence  on  it  was  up  and  up,  the  snow  in- 
creasing from  one  inch  to  a  foot  in  depth.  The  new  military 
road  exists  only  in  imagination  as  yet.  It  has  been  staked  out 
and  blazed  through  woods,  but  not  graded,  and  some  tracks 
have  been  made  by  pilgrims,  like  ourselves,  supposing  there 
really  was  a  road  there.  The  first  teams  were  thirty  days  in 
getting  over  sixty  miles  and  a  number  were  two  weeks  on  the 
way.  We  made  it  in  two  days,  but  at  great  risk  to  life  and 
limb.  About  i  p.  m.  on  Thursday,  we  trotted  over  the  edge 
of  a  precipitous  slope  of  about  i,ooo  feet,  not  seeing  it  until 
we  made  the  turn  of  the  descent.  I  sprang  out.  Darley  in- 
stantly put  on  the  brakes,  but  they  would  not  hold,  and  soon 
the  bronchos  were  on  a  full  run.  The  wagon  flew  through  the 
air  as  it  bounded  from  rock  to  rock  and  our  blankets  and  pro- 
visions strewed  the  road.  I  gave  up  the  team  for  lost,  when 
one  of  the  bronchos  concluded  to  balk.  The  momentum  was 
so  great,  however,  that  he  slid  along  about  fifty  feet  before  the 
wagon  came  to  a  stop,  and  not  a  step  farther  would  he  budge. 
We  finally  took  the  team  off,  and,  chaining  both  wheels,  let  the 
wagon  down  the  mountain  by  hand.  Vrom  this  point  we 
toiled  through  canons,  bogs,  over  fallen  timber  and  rocks, 
until  night  overtook  us  on  the  summit,  at  an  elevation  of  10,000 
feet.  We  drove  into  a  thick  clump  of  tall  pines  and  camped. 
The  snow  was  nearly  two  feet  deep,  and  the  cold  was  intense. 


242  SHELDON  JACKSON 

I  judge  below  zero.  With  great  labour  we  heaped  up  a  pile  of 
logs  tliree  or  four  feet  high  for  a  fire,  which  sent  the  sparks  to 
the  top  of  the  tallest  pines  and  lighted  up  the  woods  all  around. 
The  horses  were  tied  on  one  side  of  the  fire  to  protect  them 
from  the  mountain  lions,  and  we  laid  pine  boughs  on  top  of  the 
snow  for  our  bed.  We  took  turns  at  sleeping  and  watching 
during  the  night.  Next  morning,  we  were  on  the  way  about 
sunrise,  and  during  the  forenoon  were  able  to  make  only  one 
mile  an  hour.  Twice  we  had  to  take  the  team  off,  lock  the 
wheels,  turn  the  wagon  around,  and  let  it  down  a  mountain- 
side backward  with  ropes  by  hand  from  one  to  two  thousand 
feet.  At  one  point,  Mr.  Darley  gave  up  completely  and  de- 
clared we  might  as  well  abandon  the  wagon  first  as  last.  But 
I  told  him  we  could  try,  and  if  we  got  down  safely,  all  right, 
and  if  the  thing  went  to  the  bottom  with  a  smash,  it  was  not 
much  worse  than  to  abandon  it  at  the  top.  After  a  severe 
struggle,  however,  we  did  get  down  safely,  and  about  2  p.  M. 
we  passed  out  of  the  mountains  into  the  valley.  The  rest  of 
the  afternoon  we  made  from  six  to  eight  miles  an  hour,  and 
reached  the  Indian  agency  after  nightfall.  Have  made  arrange- 
ments to  preach  at  the  Chicago  colony,  six  miles  above,  to- 
morrow. There  are  eight  families  in  this  settlement.  Mr. 
Darley  and  agent  Russell  are  now  off  visiting  some  of  the 
Mexican  plazas.  The  smallpox  is  raging  all  through  this 
region,  and  is  proving  very  fatal. 


Taos,  the  objective  point  of  this  journey,  was  reached 
on  the  fourth  day  out  from  Tierra  Amarilla.  On  the 
third  day,  Mr.  Darley  missed  the  road  and  went  twenty 
miles  out  of  the  way,  reaching  the  Eio  Grande  about 
9  p.  M.  "  Not  daring  to  cross  the  river  in  the  darkness, 
they  camped  by  the  roadside  until  the  dawning  of  the 
morning."  The  night  was  bitterly  cold  and  the  situation 
in  general  very  far  from  comfortable.  There  was  a  good 
representation  of  the  various  mission  stations  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  presbytery,  and  the  great  theme  of  all  its 
sessions  was  the  evangelization  of  this  long- neglected 
heritage  of  the  nation.  One  feature  of  special  interest 
was  the  licensing  of  four  native  missionary  teachers,  the 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  243 

first-fruits  of  work  among  the  Mexican  element  of  the 
territory. 

In  the  spring  of  1878,  Dr.  J.  M.  Shields  and  family 
were  sent  to  the  pueblo  of  Jemez,  and  soon  after  their 
arrival  opened  a  mission  and  day-school.  In  the  month 
of  September  following,  Sheldon  Jackson  made  another 
visit  to  this  portion  of  the  territory  and  assisted  in  the 
orgauizatiou  of  a  Presbyterian  church  at  Jemez.  A  week 
later,  a  church  was  organized  by  the  missionary  in  charge, 
John  Menaul,  and  Dr.  Jackson,  at  the  Laguna  pueblo. 
On  the  8th  of  November,  the  Eev.  T.  F.  Taylor  and 
family  arrived  at  Zuni,  and  took  charge  of  the  mission  at 
that  place,  as  the  successor  of  Dr.  Palmer. 

By  his  patient,  persistent  efforts,  the  missionary  super- 
intendent secured  funds  for  the  erection  of  mission  build- 
ings at  Jemez  and  Zuni  during  this  year. 

In  the  winter  of  1879,  Dr.  Jackson  secured  a  contract 
from  the  government  for  the  erection  and  equipment  of  a 
boarding  and  industrial  school  for  the  Pueblos  at  Albu- 
querque. He  also  obtained  permission  from  Carl  Schurz, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  to  place  fifteen  Navajo,  ten 
Pueblo  and  five  Moqui  children  in  the  Indian  training 
scliool  at  Carlisle,  Pa. 

With  a  view  to  the  inauguration  of  this  new  departure 
in  the  instruction  of  tbe  Indian  wards  of  the  nation  on  a 
larger  scale  he  was  appointed  the  special  agent  of  the 
government  to  collect  Indian  children  from  the  various 
tribes  and  mission  stations  under  his  charge  and  place 
them  in  such  schools  as  should  be  designated  by  the 
government  oflScials.  About  the  beginning  of  the  month 
of  July,  1880,  he  made  a  trip  to  New  Mexico,  to  test  the 
willingness  of  the  Indians  to  part  with  their  children  for 
this  purpose.  In  each  case  it  was  necessary  to  secure  the 
permission  of  the  tribe,  as  well  as  of  the  parents,  and 
this  required  careful  handling  of  the  leaders,  who  wei-e 


244  SHELDON  JACKSON 

naturally  suspicious  and  averse  to  anything  whicli  seemed 
to  be  revolutionary  or  out  of  the  usual  course  of  events. 
After  many  vexatious  delays  and  solemn  deliberations  at 
council -fires,  ten  Indian  boys  were  secured  from  the 
Pueblos,  and  one  from  the  Apaches.  At  the  Navajo 
agency,  there  was  a  disposition  at  first  to  send  the  full 
number  for  which  provision  had  been  made,  but  the  deci- 
sion of  the  warriors  was  overruled  by  the  squaws,  who 
were  not  present  at  the  council,  but  had  influence  enough 
to  stay  its  proceedings.  In  the  hope  that  their  objections 
might  be  overcome  in  time.  Dr.  Jackson  gathered  up 
those  who  had  been  already  secured  and  conducted  them 
in  person  to  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  where  he  made  arrangements 
for  their  safe  delivery  at  the  school  in  Carlisle.  An  in- 
teresting incident,  illustrative  of  his  adaptability  to  cir- 
cumstances and  prompt  decision  in  emergencies,  was 
given  in  one  of  the  Carlisle  papers  in  connection  with  a 
brief  account  of  the  arrival  of  this  little  band  of  Indian 
boys  from  New  Mexico.  The  writer,  who  seems  to  have 
been  connected  with  the  school,  says  : — 


The  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D,,  who  brought  us  the  Pueblo 
children,  had  a  narrow  escape  on  his  trip  East.  He  was  en- 
gaged to  lecture  on  Alaska  and  the  Indians  on  the  29th  of  July, 
in  the  Assembly  Hall  at  Chautauqua,  New  York.  He  expected 
to  reach  Carlisle  and  deliver  to  us  the  party  of  children  by 
July  24th,  but  storms  and  the  washing  out  of  railroad  bridges 
in  Colorado,  detained  the  party,  so  that  on  the  morning  of  the 
day  he  was  to  deliver  his  lecture  at  Chautauqua  he  had  only 
reached  Pittsburg,  Pa.  Sending  forward  his  party  of  children 
and  telegraphing  us  to  meet  them  at  Harrisburg,  he  turned 
aside  to  keep  his  Chautauqua  engagement.  He  reached  the 
grounds  six  minutes  before  the  time  appointed  for  his  lecture, 
went  on  the  stand  at  once,  and  delivered,  what  the  records  of 
the  assembly  pronounced  a  most  intensely  interesting  and  in- 
structive lecture  in  behalf  of  Indian  education  and  missionary 
work.     But  then  six  minutes  was  on  time ! 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  245 

On  the  14th  of  August,  1880,  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  transferred  the 
Indian  tribes  in  Arizona  which  had  been  assigned  to 
their  care  by  the  government  to  the  Home  Board  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  This  action  was  officially  com- 
municated to  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs.  It  re- 
sulted in  bringing  some  16,000  Indians  of  various  tribes, 
several  of  which  had  not  been  cared  for  hitherto,  into 
close  relations  with  the  Presbyterian  Church.  During 
the  winter  months  of  December  and  January  which  fol- 
lowed this  action,  Sheldon  Jackson  visited  three  of  these 
tribes  and  arranged  for  the  establishment  of  missions 
among  them.  This  was  done  in  connection  with  another 
expedition,  authorized  by  the  Indian  commissioner,  to 
collect  children  from  several  of  the  tribes  in  New  Mexico 
and  Arizona,  for  the  schools  at  Hampton  and  Carlisle. 
On  this  long  and  perilous  journey,  Mrs.  Jackson  accom- 
panied her  husband  and  assisted  him  in  the  care  of  the 
children.  On  the  greater  part  of  this  trip  he  was  fa- 
voured also  with  the  company  and  assistance  of  Mr.  M.  E. 
Conklin,  travelling  artist  of  the  Frank  Leslie  Publishing 
Company,  who  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  visit 
the  out-of-the-way  places  to  which  Dr.  Jackson  was  go- 
ing in  the  interests  of  the  house  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected. On  the  journey  southward  from  Albuquerque, 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Jackson  had  the  advantage  of  travel  by  rail 
over  the  newly  constructed  railroad  to  San  Marcial,  the 
terminal  station  of  the  passenger  line.  This  was  reached 
after  hours  of  vexatious  delays,  one  hour  too  late  for  the 
outgoing  construction  train,  upon  which  they  expected  to 
continue  their  journey.  As  there  was  no  train  available 
of  this  character  until  the  next  morning,  they  were 
obliged  to  wait  over  for  it.  Through  this  long  winter 
day  they  shivered  around  a  red  hot  stove  in  a  temporary 
canvas  hotel,  while  the  thermometer  registered  near  zero 


246  SHELDON  JACKSON 

outside.  General  John  Fremont,  who  was  travelling  with 
them  over  this  line,  shared  their  discomforts,  for  here 
there  was  no  advantage  in  rank  or  station,  and  contrib- 
uted liberally  to  the  general  fund  of  conversation  and 
reminiscence  which  helped  to  wile  away  the  slowly  mov- 
ing hours.  Their  sleeping-place  for  the  night  was  a 
rough  shanty,  eight  feet  by  six  in  dimensions.  The  night 
was  so  cold  that  the  clock  stopped  and  the  landlord, 
missing  the  usual  ring  of  the  hours,  overslept,  and  the 
little  i)arty  was  aroused,  too  late  for  breakfast,  with  the 
warning  that  the  train  was  about  to  start. 

Stumbling  along  in  the  dark  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
they  were  hurried  into  an  emigrant  car,  attached  to  a 
freight  train,  which  was  already  crowded  with  saloon  men 
and  gamblers,  who  were  moving  to  the  front.  The  car 
was  unlighted  and  cold,  and  the  general  discomfort  of  the 
men  found  expression  in  increased  drinking,  smoking, 
and  profanity.  Thus  the  New  Year's  day — 1881 — was 
spent  from  seven  a.  m.  to  one  in  the  afternoon,  when  a 
transfer  was  made  to  the  stage-coach  for  the  mission  sta- 
tion at  Mesilla,  which  was  reached  at  eleven  o'clock  at 
night.  A  ride  of  twenty  miles  across  the  desert  in  a  pri- 
vate conveyance  through  the  land  of  the  treacherous 
Apaches,  brought  the  party  to  the  terminus  of  the  South- 
ern Pacific,  where  a  construction  train  was  again  taken 
for  Demiug,  the  limit,  at  that  time,  of  the  passenger 
division  of  the  line.  Eeferring  to  this  ride  across  the 
desert.  Dr.  Jackson  says  :  ' '  We  did  not  anticipate 
danger,  as  the  noted  chief  Victoria  had  been  so  recently 
killed  and  the  power  of  his  band  was  supposed  to  be 
broken.  It  was  a  false  security,  however,  as  the  next 
week  they  captured  the  stage,  killed  and  mutilated  the 
driver  and  passengers,  aud  during  the  next  two  weeks 
massacred  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  persons.  However, 
the  good  hand  of  our  God  was  with  us  and  we  escaped." 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  24Y 

At  Deming,  Dr.  Jackson  learDed  that  the  train  on  which 
he  expected  to  continue  the  journey  had  left  about  six 
hours  before  their  arrival.  At  this  point  it  was  impos- 
sible to  secure  food  or  lodging,  and  the  only  alternative 
was  to  continue  the  journey  in  an  emigrant  car  attached 
to  the  construction  train.  The  day  wore  away  without 
the  opportunity  to  take  dinner  or  supper.  At  midnight 
a  transfer  was  made  to  a  more  comfortable  car,  in  which 
the  journey  was  continued  until  the  party  arrived  at  Tuc- 
son at  four  o'clock  the  next  day.  On  the  day  following, 
the  agency  of  the  Pima  and  Maricopa  Indians  was 
reached  and  arrangements  were  made  for  the  specified 
number  of  children  from  this  station.  During  his  stay 
at  this  agency,  Sheldon  Jackson  again  met  Mr.  Charles 
H.  Cook,  who  kept  store  during  the  week  and  preached 
to  the  Indians  on  the  Sabbath,  and  urged  him  to  resign 
his  clerkship  and  give  his  whole  time  to  religious  work  ; 
and  also  to  study  at  home  for  the  ministry.  To  enable 
him  to  do  this.  Dr.  Jackson  provided  the  necessary  text- 
books and  supervised  his  studies  by  mail.  He  finally 
arranged  for  his  examination  and  ordination  by  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Los  Angeles.  Los  Angeles,  although  411  miles 
distant,  was  the  nearest  presbytery  to  Mr.  Cook.  At 
Wilcox  station  he  took  the  stage-coach  for  the  San  Carlos 
Apache  Agency,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  distant. 
The  return  journey,  via  Glebe,  which  was  about  fifty 
miles  out  of  the  way,  was  found  to  be  ' '  the  roughest  and 
most  dangerous  ride  on  the  whole  trip.  In  some  places 
the  hills  were  so  steep  that  the  passengers  were  warned 
to  get  out,  and  when  the  wheels  were  chained  the  horses 
were  put  to  the  gallop  to  prevent  the  coach  from  running 
over  them."  On  the  return  journey  from  the  places  of 
rendezvous  for  the  children  several  attempts  were  made 
by  parents  or  suspicious  chiefs  of  the  tribes  to  prevent 
one  or  another  from  going,  and  great  wisdom  and  tact 


248  SHELDON  JACKSON 

were  necessary  to  keep  those  who  had  been  secured  until 
they  were  out  of  reach  of  their  would-be  deliverers.  As 
far  as  the  young  jjeople  themselves  were  concerned,  no 
difficulty  was  experienced  and  no  distrust  was  manifested. 
When  the  party  were  about  to  take  the  midnight  train  at 
Tucson  for  the  long  journey  to  the  States,  a  telegram  was 
shown  the  leader  which  conveyed  the  startling  intelli- 
gence that  a  hostile  band  of  Ajiaches  were  on  the  war- 
path murdering  and  pillaging  along  the  line  of  the  route 
they  were  expecting  to  take.  In  view  of  this  imminent 
danger,  it  was  thought  best  to  remain  over  a  day  to  tele- 
graph for  a  military  escort.  At  the  end  of  this  time,  no 
message  had  been  received,  and  it  was  decided  to  continue 
the  journey.  Through  the  kindness  of  the  assistant 
superintendent  of  the  road,  a  special  car  was  furnished, 
which  was  locked  up  to  x>revent  intrusion  from  Indian 
visitors.  At  midnight  the  car  was  attached  to  the  regu- 
lar train.  At  Deming,  it  was  found  that  all  travel  had 
been  suspended  on  account  of  the  Indian  raids.  The 
stage-coaches  were  not  running,  and  the  freighters  were 
laid  up  at  the  terminal  or  way  stations.  For  two  days 
previous,  Dr.  Jackson  had  been  telegraphing  to  the  Eev. 
Mr.  Thompson,  the  missionary  at  Mesilla,  for  teams  to 
-convey  his  party  across  the  country,  and  at  Deming  a 
message  was  received  that  they  were  awaiting  them  at 
the  end  of  the  track,  some  sixty  miles  distant.  With  this 
assurance,  the  car  was  attached  to  a  construction  train 
and  at  midnight  they  reached  the  terminal  station  and 
were  warmly  welcomed  by  Mr.  Thompson  who  had  ac- 
companied the  teams  to  render  any  assistance  within  his 
power.  The  most  dangerous  part  of  the  journey  was  still 
before  them  and  the  children  were  aroused  from  their 
slumbers,  transferred  to  the  wagons,  and  an  immediate 
start  was  made  in  order  to  get  as  far  on  the  way  as  pos- 
sible before  daylight.      There  were  three  wagons  and 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  249 

three  armed  horsemen  in  this  hastily-gathered  equipment, 
and  the  teams  were  pushed  along  as  fast  as  possible. 
Small  bauds  of  hostile  Indians  were  knowu  to  be  all 
around  them,  but  they  were  not  attacked  and  reached  the 
terminal  of  the  New  Mexican  road  in  safety.  ''  Two  days 
before,"  says  Dr.  Jackson,  "three  herdsmen  and  two 
miners  had  been  killed  near  the  road  at  Chloride  Gulch. 
On  the  day  previous,  two  men  were  killed  on  the  Upper 
Chrichillis,  and,  as  we  afterwards  learned,  at  the  same 
time  we  were  on  the  road,  a  man,  his  wife,  child  and 
mother-in-law  were  massacred  at  Carisco.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day,  five  men  were  killed  west  of  San  Marchial, 
and,  a  day  later,  the  buckboard  stage  was  captured  and 
the  driver  kiUed." 

These  massacres  had  so  stirred  the  Mexican  communi- 
ties that  in  every  town  excitement  was  at  fever  heat  and 
lawless  bauds  were  breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaugh- 
ter against  all  Indians  and  their  sympathizers  among  the 
white  element  of  the  territory.  In  the  face  of  this  new 
peril,  great  caution  was  necessary  to  avoid  a  collision  in 
the  towns  through  which  they  were  obliged  to  pass,  and 
as  far  as  possible  the  Indians  were  kept  in  the  background. 
At  one  point  an  attempt  to  waylay  and  massacre  the 
whole  party  was  frustrated  by  Mr.  Thompson,  who  had 
received  imformation  of  the  conspiracy  beforehand. 
This  veteran  missionary,  who  did  faithful  service  at 
one  of  the  most  difficult  and  dangerous  posts  at  that 
time  on  the  frontier,  has  given  a  brief  sketch  of  that 
memorable  journey,  which  should  have  a  place  in  this 
record. 

"  During  the  first  part  of  my  term  of  service  in  New  Mexico," 
he  writes,  •'  Dr.  Jackson  was  general  missionary  of  this  vast 
region  of  country,  and  his  work  of  organizing  schools  and 
churches  among  this  people  was  no  easy  task.  To  try  to  reach 
the   Indians,  especially,    brought   a   protest  at  once  from   the 


250  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Americans  and  Mexicans,  for  the  Indians  were  hated  and  sought 
for  only  to  be  killed.  When,  therefore,  the  plan  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  take  Apache  and  other  Indian  children  north  and 
educate  them,  became  known  at  Mesilla  and  Las  Cruces  it 
created  great  excitement,  and  it  was  openly  counselled  on  the 
streets  that  Dr.  Jackson  and  all  his  party  of  Indian  children 
should  be  killed.  The  feeling  ran  so  high  that  plans  were  laid 
to  waylay  and  shoot  them,  as  they  drove  through  a  lonely  ravine 
on  their  way  across  the  country  between  railways,  and  lay  the 
blame  on  the  Apaches.  Learning  of  the  danger,  I  accompanied 
the  wagons  to  the  end  of  the  track  and  there  waited  the  arrival 
of  Dr.  Jackson  and  party.  They  arrived  on  the  construction 
train  at  the  end  of  the  track  about  midnight.  Soon  after  the 
children  were  hurried  into  the  waiting  wagons  and  y^e  were  off. 
Leaving  the  natural  route  of  travel,  a  detour  was  made,  thus 
avoiding  the  party  lying  in  ambush,  and,  by  forced  driving, 
Mesilla  was  reached  about  noon.  On  the  evening  of  the 
second  day  the  party  was  safe  in  a  camp  of  United  States  sol- 
diers who  had  been  notified  by  telegraph  from  Washington  to 
protect  them.  Those  days  and  nights  were  times  of  great  anx- 
iety to  me.  The  Apaches  were  out  on  the  war-path,  the  old 
stage  driver  was  shot  shortly  afterwards,  and  there  never  was  a 
day  during  this  excitement  that  I  did  not  watch  carefully  the 
movements  of  those  who  were  constantly  threatening  to  kill  the 
Indians  and  all  their  sympathizers.  I  have  often  wondered  if 
those  young  men  and  girls,  who  were  awakened  at  night  in  the 
train,  rushed  into  the  wagons  and  driven  with  so  much  speed 
along  the  Rio  Grande,  understood  why  we  wanted  to  reach 
Mesilla  so  quickly.  My  sympathies  are  with  the  poor  Indians, 
and  I  think  we  as  a  church  should  send  more  teachers  into 
those  dark  sections  of  our  land.  The  work  done  by  Dr.  Jack- 
son and  the  material  he  worked  with  has  never  been  fully  ap- 
preciated. I  have  not  forgotten  the  trying  time  through  which 
he  has  passed,  and  I  rejoice  in  knowing  that  the  Lord  has 
spared  him  to  see  some  of  the  darkness  disappearing  among  the 
Mexicans,  and  anew  era  of  gospel  power  prevailing." 

At  Marcial,  the  southern  terminus  of  the  Atchison  and 
Santa  F4  road,  which  was  reached  by  Dr.  Jackson's  party 
about  10  p.  M.,  a  greater  peril  than  any  of  the  preceding 
days  awaited  them.     *  *  The  whole  village, ' '  says  Dr.  Jack- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  251 

son,  ''was  panic-stricken  with  fear  of  the  Indians,  as  on 
the  two  previous  days  nine  persons  had  been  murdered  a 
few  miles  distant.  Then,  to  make  the  danger  more  vivid, 
that  afternoon  the  mutilated  bodies  of  four  persons  had 
been  brought  to  the  Mexican  village,  a  short  distance 
away,  where  an  infuriated  mob  of  between  two  and  three 
hundred  were  assembled  to  view  the  remains  of  their 
friends.  Their  loud  wails  of  grief  were  mingled  with  mad 
cries  of  vengeance  upon  the  Indians.  Had  the  presence 
of  these  sixteen  unarmed  Indian  children  been  known  to 
them,  the  mob  would  have  torn  us  limb  from  limb,  for  an 
Indian  cannot  be  more  cruel  than  an  infuriated  Mexican. 
Arriving  at  the  depot,  our  party  kept  their  seats  until 
the  train  was  emptied  and  backed  down  to  the  yard. 
Ominous  warnings  were  given  by  the  railroad  men  that 
if  the  Mexicans  found  out  we  were  there,  our  lives  would  be 
worthless.  Once  in  the  yard,  we  were  quietly  and  quickly 
transferred  to  a  special  car.  The  shades  were  pulled 
down  and  the  lights  put  out.  For  three  hours — it  seemed 
an  age — ^we  sat  in  darkness  facing  death,  liable  at  any 
moment  to  hear  the  cry  of  the  frenzied  mob.  The  chil- 
dren were  unaware  of  their  danger,  and  slept,  while  my 
wife  and  I  watched  and  rested  on  the  promises.  It  was 
not  simply  the  lives  of  the  party  at  stake,  important  as 
they  were  to  us,  but  the  education  and  evangelization  of 
the  tribes  represented  by  these  children  were  at  stake. 
Everything  had  been  done  that  could  be  done  to  secure 
the  safety  of  the  party,  and  now  we  were  shut  up  to  sim- 
ply waiting  and  trusting.  At  length  there  was  a  whistle, 
a  puff  of  the  engine,  a  jerk,  and,  to  our  great  relief,  we 
were  under  way.  In  the  morning,  we  were  in  Albuquer- 
que, and  the  long  strain  of  six  days  and  nights  of  great 
anxiety  was  over.  At  Albuquerque,  Mr.  Conklin  had 
gathered  for  us  ten  Pueblo  children,  five  boys  and  five 
girls.     The  entire  party  of  twenty-six  Indian  children  we 


252  SHELDON  JACKSON 

at  length  turned  over  to  the  Carlisle  and  Hampton  train- 
ing schools." 

A  telling  instance  of  the  result  of  a  brief  period  of 
Christian  instruction,  in  the  case  of  one  of  the  Pajiago 
Indian  girls  of  this  party,  was  given  by  Francesco  Eios, 
several  years  ago,  in  the  Southern  Worlcman : — 

One  winter  morning,  nearly  three  years  ago,  Dr.  Sheldon 
Jackson  brought  a  party  of  Arizona  Indians  to  Hampton. 
Most  of  them  were  strange,  wild-looking  men  j  three  were  funny 
little  Pima  boys,  with  great  black  felt  slouched  hats,  and  very 
ragged  clothes.  Two  little  girls  finished  up  the  procession.  One 
of  them,  Melisse,  a  regular  Topsy,  with  dishevelled  hair  and 
queer,  wild  ways ;  the  other,  Francesca,  a  quiet,  sweet-faced 
child,  who  looked  up  from  under  her  shawl  with  shy,  trustful 
glances,  which  won  our  hearts  right  away. 

She  hardly  looked  like  a  girl  who  could  brave  the  public 
opinion  of  her  tribe  and  resist  the  threats  and  persuasions  of 
her  friends  to  follow  the  ray  of  light  that  glimmered  before  her. 

The  little  girl,  fairly  established  in  school,  set  herself  dili- 
gently to  improve.  In  a  marvellously  short  time  she  began  to 
talk  pretty  broken  English.  Two  of  the  older  girls  took  her  to 
room  with  them,  and  helped  to  teach  her.  They  were  discour- 
aged sometimes,  but  I  think  when  they  think  of  her  now,  they 
must  feel  they  have  a  rich  reward. 

After  Francesca  had  been  at  school  a  few  months,  reports  of 
her  mother's  death  vi^ere  brought  to  her.  It  was  some  time  be- 
fore they  were  verified.  When  at  last  the  little  girl  had  to  be- 
lieve them,  her  grief  was  very  sharp,  but  she  bore  the  pain  with 
the  same  patience  and  courage  she  had  shown  before. 

When  we  moved  to  Winona  Lodge  no  one  was  readier  than 
Francesca  to  do  her  share  in  the  work,  or  more  conscientious 
about  accomplishing  it. 

But  towards  the  spring  the  little  girl  grew  weak.  She  didn't 
care  to  go  to  school,  and  she  couldn't  play. 

She  stood  in  the  hall  and  bade  us  good-bye  as  the  Berkshire 
girls  started  off  in  June  for  the  summer. 

We  didn't  know  she  was  going  so  soon  on  a  longer  journey 
from  v/hich  she  would  never  return.  .  .  .  "I  know  I  am 
going  to  die,"  she  said  bravely  one  day.  "  I  should  like  to 
live  and  tell  my  father  about  God."     She  knew  General  Arm- 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  253 

strong  was  going  to  her  home.  When  she  bade  him  good-bye 
she  wanted  him  to  see  the  old  church,  and  to  bring  her  some  of 
the  Indian  fruits.  In  the  early  morning  twilight  of  the  day  she 
died  she  called  the  teacher  who  watched  her  and  said,  "  My 
mother  came  to  see  me  last  night.  She  glad  to  have  me  here." 
"  I  think  she  will  take  you  to  be  with  her  soon."  "  I  know," 
said  the  little  girl,  "  but  I  should  like  her  to  stay  here  a  little 
while  and  learn."  Only  a  few  hours  after  she  reached  the 
brink  of  the  cold  river.  With  her  sweet  old  courage  she  set 
her  face  forward,  and  we  think  she  saw  one  waiting  to  carry 
her  across,  as  she  cried  with  infinite  tenderness  and  gladness — 
"  Jesus  !  Jesus  !  " 

And  the  teacher  beside  her,  whose  hair  was  white  with  years 
of  service  and  sorrow  and  trust,  called  to  the  child — "  Yes, 
blessed  Jesus,  sweet  Jesus!  " 

Was  she  already  in  the  arms  of  Everlasting  Tenderness  and 
Strength,  that  with  a  voice  and  look  of  such  measureless  peace, 
she  echoed  the  words — "  Sweet,  sweet  Jesus  !  " 


With  mucli  less  difi&culty  and  danger  other  parties  of 
Indian  children  were  afterwards  secured  by  Dr.  Jackson 
for  tliese  far-away  Eastern  schools,  as  well  as  for  those  es- 
tablished by  government  aid  within  the  limits  of  his  mis- 
sion field. 

Thus  while  acting  as  the  field  agent  of  a  Board, 
organized  solely  for  work  among  the  English-speaking 
population  of  the  country,  Sheldon  Jackson  became,  by 
force  of  circumstances  and  Providential  overrulings,  the 
superintendent  of  the  mission  schools  and  churches  of 
most  of  the  aboriginal  tribes,  outside  of  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory, as  well  as  of  the  missions  established  among  the 
Spanish-speaking  people  of  the  country. 

The  Eev.  Charles  H.  Cook,  D.  D.,  who  has  laboured 
for  more  than  three  decades  among  the  Pima  Indians  in 
Arizona,  bears  this  testimony  to  his  efficiency  and  suc- 
cess in  the  beginning  and  early  development  of  this 
work  : — 


254:  SHELDON  JACKSON 

"  It  was  about  thirty  years  ago,"  he  writes,  "  when  we  first  had 
the  privilege  of  meeting  Dr.  Jackson.  In  visiting  his  great 
parish, — Colorado,  Utah,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona, — he 
called  on  us  at  Sacaton,  Arizona.  The  good  brother  was  not 
only  anxious  to  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  the  whites,  but  he 
also  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  of  our  Indians.  Arizona 
at  that  time,  I  believe,  had  one  Protestant  church  at  Prescott,' 
and  one  day-school  among  the  Pima  Indians.  The  Indian  pop- 
ulation numbered  over  40,000,  but  up  to  that  time  no  church 
of  our  great  country  had  sent  a  missionary  to  any  of  the  tribes 
of  Arizona.  During  the  winter  of  1880-1881,  when  the  South- 
ern Pacific  was  being  built  through  Arizona,  Dr.  Jackson  paid 
us  a  second  visit.  He  had  concluded  that  as  no  other  denom- 
ination would  establish  a  mission  among  the  Pimas,  that  the 
Presbyterian  Church  must  do  so.  This  he  accomplished,  and 
the  Pimas  now  have  seven  churches  and  a  Presbyterian  mem- 
bership of  some  1,340.  At  present,  most  of  the  Arizona  In- 
dians are  supplied  with  churches  and  schools.  Among  the 
chief  magistrates  of  our  great  Republic,  General  Grant,  Hayes 
and  Harrison  took  a  special  interest  in  the  welfare  of  our  In- 
dians. Among  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  perhaps  no  one 
has  taken  a  greater  interest  or  worked  harder  to  bring  the 
Christian  civilization  we  enjoy  to  our  Indians  than  Dr. 
Sheldon  Jackson.  Instead  of  filling  the  pulpit  of  one  of  our 
great  Eastern  churches,  the  good  brother  considered  it  his  duty 
to  condescend  to  men  of  low  estate,  that  he  might  bring  the 
light  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  the  dark  places  of  our  country, 
where  it  was  most  needed.  May  he  long  be  spared  to  continue 
in  his  great  work."  ^ 


During  the  decade  of  faithful,  laborious  service  which 
Dr.  Jackson  gave  to  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  the  work 
among  the  Spanish-speaking  people  was  necessarily  slow. 
It  began  with  the  mission  school  and  the  training  of 
native  teachers  and  preachers  and  it  encountered  much 
opposition,  open  and  secret.  Its  progress,  however,  since 
**the  day  of  small  things"  has  been  rapid  and  continu- 

*  There  was  no  Protestant  church  at  Prescott  at  that  time. 

*  Annual  Report,  General  Assembly,  1906. 


PIONEER  WORK  IN  ARIZONA  255 

ous.  The  Synod  of  New  Mexico,  whicli  now  covers  the 
immense  field  once  held  in  faith  and  hope  by  the  Presby- 
tery of  Santa  Fe,  reported  to  the  Assembly  of  1908  five 
presbyteries,  which  have  under  their  care  ninety-one 
churches.  The  working  force  of  the  synod  consists  of 
sixty-nine  ministers,  five  licentiates,  sixteen  local  evangel- 
ists, seven  Indian  helpers  and  eighty- seven  missionary 
teachers.  It  also  reported  eight  candidates  for  the 
ministry. 

While  the  present  needs  of  this  typical  mission  field  are 
still  great  and  pressing  the  results  are  most  encouraging. 
The  splendid  work  done  by  the  mission  schools  is  rec- 
ognized by  all  who  come  in  contact  with  them  and  the 
missionary  is  now  welcomed  to  every  community  in 
which  they  have  been  established.  A  few  years  ago  the 
Pima  Indians  only  were  named  in  the  work  of  the  synod. 
"Now  Pimas,  Papagoes,  Maricopas,  Mojaves,  and 
Navajos  are  being  preached  by  eight  ministers  and  thir- 
teen helpers,  and  tidings  come  of  many  who  are  inquir- 
ing the  way  of  life."  Thus  has  the  promise  been  verified 
that  they  who  "sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy." 


XII 

THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  WOMAN'S  BOARD 

OF  HOME  MISSIONS  ' 

"Over  the  ages  comes  down  to ns 
A  sweet  old  message  that  readeth  thus  :  — 

'  Help  those  women  who  laboured  with  me  '  ! 
And,  methinks,  could  St.  Paul  look  down  and  see 
The  gleaners  who  follow  the  reaping  baud, 
Where  the  fields  lie  whitening  in  every  land, 
He  would  call  from  heaven's  third  height  of  glory 

'  Help  those  women,'  " — Anon. 

FEOM  the  days  of  the  Apostles  the  value  of 
woman's  work,  in  ways  distinctively  womanly, 
in  the  missionary  and  evangelistic  activities  of  the 
Church,  has  been  recognized  and  encouraged.  The  faith- 
ful women  who  laboured  with  St.  Paul  in  the  Gospel, 
whose  names  have  been  inscribed  by  him  on  an  imper- 
ishable roll  of  honour,  have  been  followed  by  a  long  line 
of  like-minded  labourers, — more  numerous  to-day  than 
ever  before, — in  every  active  and  aggressive  period  in  the 
history  of  the  Church. 

The  hearty  cooperation  of  the  women  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  in  the  home  field  antedates  the  origin  of  the 
Home  Board  itself  ;  and,  for  a  century  or  more,  they  have 
ministered  through  organized  bands  to  the  necessities  of 
the  missionaries  on  the  frontier.  This  was  the  ^'  control- 
ling purpose  "  which  held  together  the  Women's  Sewing 
Societies  of  the  olden  time.  As  one  has  happily  ex- 
pressed it : — 

256 


Woman's  Executive  Committee  and  lioARn  ok  Home  Missions. 
(Fur  names  sec  .Ippciuiix,  page  4S1.     Group  6.) 


WOMAN'S  BOAED  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    257 

They  combined  to  give  where  they  could,  and  to  labour 
where  they  could  not  give,  to  lighten  the  burdens  and  brighten 
the  homes  of  these  devoted  ones  battling  for  the  Lord  on  the 
rugged  frontier.  As  the  cool  mountain  springs  are  to  the  ma- 
jestic Hudson,  so  these  time-honoured  sewing  societies,  are  to 
the  noble,  organized  woman's  work  of  to-day  !  They  were  the 
far-oif  sources  from  which  all  this  glorious  work  for  women 
sprang.  They  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  their  way  through 
many  changes  in  Church  and  State,  in  spite  of  indifference  and 
ridicule,  all  the  while  keeping  the  welfare  of  the  missionary  at 
heart  with  perennial  devotion.  They  were  the  nurseries,  for 
the  idea  that  woman's  work  was  needed  to  supplement  man's 
work  in  the  outward,  aggressive  activities  of  the  Church,  and, 
if  first  for  domestic  missions,  then,  naturally  enough,  next  for 
foreign  missions.' 

The  great  central  agency,  now  known  as  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  so 
wonderful  in  its  present  developments  and  so  far-reach- 
ing in  its  influences,  is  the  outcome  of  a  movement  which, 
at  the  first,  was  not  only  slow  of  growth,  but  was  singu- 
larly misunderstood  and  bitterly  opposed.  It  grew  out 
of  repeated  appeals  from  missionaries  and  laymen  on  the 
frontier  who  were  brought  face  to  face  with  conditions 
which  existed  among  the  unreached  masses  of  the  native 
populations  in  the  Eocky  Mountain  territories.  Within 
the  limits  of  the  great  missionary  field  which  was  provi- 
dentially committed  to  Sheldon  Jackson's  care,  in  the 
spring  of  1869,  the  problem  of  reaching  these  unevangel- 
ized  masses  was  confronted,  and  its  solution  attempted  in 
wliat  seemed  to  be  at  the  time  the  only  practical  way. 
Here  in  close  relations  with  a  mixed  multitude  of  the  rep- 
resentatives of  all  lands  were  concentrated  all  of  the  Mor- 
mon, nearly  all  of  the  Mexican,  and  about  one-third  of 
the  Indian  population  of  the  country. 

'Historical  sketch  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  of  Home 
Missions,  by  Mrs.  S.  F,  Scovel,  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  May  23,  1879. 


258  SHELDON  JACKSON 

To  reach  these  lapsed,  pagan  and  semi-pagan  masses, 
which  dominated  the  sections  in  which  they  were  located, 
by  the  ordinary  modes  of  approach,  under  the  rules  and 
conditions  originally  framed  for  the  Home  Board,  was 
impossible.  Its  charter  limited  its  sphere  of  influence  to 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  presumably  among  English- 
speaking  people,  and  its  founders  had  never  anticipated 
a  situation  such  as  confronted  our  pioneer  missionaries  in 
the  early  seventies,  when  they  were  brought  into  close 
contact  with  the  dominating  influences  of  degrading  super- 
stitions and  unmitigated  heathenism,  within  the  limits  of 
their  newly-formed  presbyteries  and  synods.  It  was 
equally  imx^ossible  to  reach  these  "exceptional  classes," 
as  they  were  then  termed,  effectively  under  the  provisions 
and  modes  of  operation  of  the  Foreign  Board.  Its  re- 
sources were  inadequate  for  such  a  work,  and  its  field  was 
so  wide  that  its  gauge  was  necessarily  fixed  at  about  one 
missionary  for  every  three  million  of  the  world's  popula- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  Board  could  not  see  its 
way  clear  to  support  continuously  during  this  decade  a 
single  missionary  to  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tain territories  ,  nor  could  it  do  anything  for  the  degraded 
Mormon  element  of  Utah,  which  so  sadly  needed  the  up- 
lifting influences  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

In  view  of  these  difficulties  and  limitations,  Dr.  Jack- 
son was  convinced  from  the  first  that  a  new  agency  must 
be  employed  to  meet  this  emergency  and  prepare  the  way 
for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  This  agency,  which  had 
been  so  successfully  employed  in  foreign  lands,  was  the 
Christian  school.  It  was  a  natural,  and  certainly  a  legiti- 
mate, conclusion  that,  inasmuch  as  the  mission  school  was 
a  necessary  adjunct  to  the  work  conducted  by  the  Foreign 
Board  in  the  Indian  Territory,  it  was  just  as  necessary  to 
success  in  work  conducted  by  the  Home  Board  among  the 
Indians  of  Colorado  or  Arizona.     If  it  were  a  necessary 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS     259 

ageucy  to  reach  those  who  did  not  welcome  the  Gospel, 
aud  for  the  most  part  were  hostile  to  it,  in  the  Eepublic 
of  Mexico,  it  was  quite  as  necessary  among  the  bigoted 
opposers  of  the  Gospel  in  Utah  and  New  Mexico.  It  was 
also  a  natural  aud  legitimate  conclusion  that  it  was  just 
as  necessary  aud  seemly  that  the  Christian  women  of  our 
laud  should  join  in  a  systematic  effort  to  bring  the  deliv- 
erance of  the  Gosj)el  to  the  degraded  and  deluded  women 
aud  children  of  Utah  and  Alaska  and  the  Southwestern 
territories,  as  to  the  degraded  and  deluded  women  and 
children  of  India  aud  China. 

While,  for  the  reasons  already  given,  the  Home  Board 
was  not  at  liberty  to  use  its  funds  for  the  establishment 
of  mission  schools,  there  was  apparently  no  alternative 
but  to  seek  the  voluntary  helj)  and  cooperation  of  the 
womeu  of  the  church, — whose  hearts  the  Lord  had  touched, 
— in  the  inauguration  and  development  of  this  important 
auxiliary  work.  A  hiut  as  to  its  practical  value,  and 
also  as  to  its  mode  of  operation,  had  beeu  already  giveu 
within  the  limits  of  Dr.  Jackson's  field,  by  a  little  band 
of  devoted  women,  representing  different  denominations 
in  the  state  of  New  York,  who  had  formed  a  Union  INfis- 
sionary  Society  for  the  i)urpose  of  establishing  schools  in 
New  Mexico  aud  Arizona.  The  first  impulse  to  this 
movement  came  from  the  appeals  of  an  earnest  Christian 
latly'  who  had  accompauied  her  husband,  an  officer  of 
the  army,  to  his  military  post  in  New  Mexico.  While 
there  her  heart  was  stirred  within  her  as  she  realized  that 
this  goodly  heritage  of  the  nation,  which  for  many  years 
had  been  under  the  protection  of  its  flag,  was  practically 
throughout  its  vast  extent  without  the  influences  of  the 
Gospel,  and  almost  wholly  given  over  to  the  influences  of 
a  corrupt  form  of  Christianity,  but  little  better  than 
heatheuism.  The  letters  which  she  wrote  with  respect  to 
*  Mrs.  A.  J.  Alexander, 


260  SHELDON  JACKSON 

this  spiritual  destitution  to  her  mother,  Mrs.  E.  T.  Throop 
Martin,  of  Auburn,  New  York,  were  read,  or  sent,  to 
some  of  her  relatives  and  personal  friends.  Moved  by 
these  representations,  alittlecircleof  workers  was  formed, 
under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Martin,  with  a  view  to  sup- 
porting a  missionary  teacher  in  the  city  of  Santa  Fe. 
This  informal  organization  was  effected  in  the  summer  of 
1867.  It  was  known  as  the  Santa  Fe  Association,  and  its 
first  undertaking  was  the  establishment  of  a  mission 
school  in  that  old  historic  centre  of  government  and  in- 
fluence. Through  the  active  cooperation  of  Mrs.  Julia 
M.  Graham,  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mrs.  Martin,  a 
similar  association  on  a  larger  scale  was  organized  in  the 
month  of  March,  1868,  at  the  Bible  House  m  New  York 
City,  which  was  called  ' '  The  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  and 
Colorado  Missionary  Association." 

To  this  larger  and  more  influential  organization  the 
Auburn  Society  became  auxiliary,  and  Mrs.  Graham  was 
made  its  first  president. 

This  association  in  its  first  year  ' '  paid  the  salary  of  a 
Bible  reader  and  teacher  in  Santa  Fe,  assisted  in  defray- 
ing the  expenses  of  a  missionary  in  Arizona,  another  in 
Colorado  ;  aroused  interest  in  behalf  of  the  Pima  and 
Navajo  Indians ;  sent  out  Bibles,  tracts,  and  three  com- 
munion services.  In  all,  $1,203.50  were  raised.  In  the 
following  year,  money  was  raised  for  the  purchase  of  a 
valuable  property  at  Santa  Fe,  uj^ou  which  were  buildings 
used  as  church,  parsonage,  and  schoolhouse.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  establishmentofa  mission  at  Las  Vegas,  the  pur- 
chase of  buildings  there,  and  the  erection  of  a  church."  ' 

In  the  preceding  chapter  mention  was  made  of  the 
Ladies'  Union  Missionary  School  Association,  located  at 
Albany,    N.   Y.,   which   undertook   the   support   of  the 

'  First  anntial  report  of  the  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  Colorado 
Missionary  Association. 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    261 

scliool  at  the  pueblo  of  Laguna  for  the  first  three  years  of 
its  existence.  This  association  was  organized  as  a  branch 
of  the  New  York  Society,  on  a  stormy  day  in  the  month 
of  March,  1871.  In  the  following  year,  it  was  incorpor- 
ated, so  as  to  hold  land  for  mission  purposes.  It  proved 
to  be  a  valuable  auxiliary  to  Dr.  Jackson's  work  in  a 
time  of  need,  but,  like  the  parent  society,  which  was  also 
helpful  at  several  points,  according  to  its  ability,  it  dis- 
tributed its  work  among  the  locations  where  the  need 
seemed  to  be  greatest,  irrespective  of  denominational 
influence  or  control. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  in  this  connection  that  the  founders 
of  this  Union  Missionary  Society  and  its  several  auxil- 
iaries, were  the  first  to  respond  to  the  call  for  organized 
work  in  the  support  of  missionary  teachers  and  evan- 
gelists on  our  western  frontier,  with  a  view  to  supple- 
menting the  work  of  the  churches.  In  some  cases,  also, 
they  were  privileged  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  tardy 
advance  of  the  missionary.  They  were  the  first  to  break 
with  the  tradition,  so  long  held  by  many  in  the  churches, 
that  woman's  work  in  the  home  field  was  limited  to  the 
prei)aration  of  missionary  boxes  or  the  securing  of  funds 
to  supplement  the  deficiencies  or  reducttious  of  the  mis- 
sionaries' salaries.  The  call  which  they  heard  was  recog- 
nized as  the  call  of  God,  and  in  responding  to  it  by 
direct  efforts  to  save  the  lost  and  uplift  the  degraded  of 
their  own  sex  in  the  benighted  regions  of  our  new  pos- 
sessions, they  became  the  advance  guard  of  a  mighty  and 
ever-increasing  host  of  ministering  women,  whose  field 
extends  now  over  a  vast  continent  and  whose  influence  is 
felt  for  good  in  every  quarter  of  the  land. 

In  the  spring  of  1870,  when  organizations  auxiliary  to 
the  Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  located  at  Phila- 
delphia, were  being  formed  all  over  the  country,  the 
Presbyterian  contingent  of  the  New  York  Society,  which 


262  SHELDON  JACKSON 

seemed  to  have  a  coutrolling  influence  in  its  deliberations, 
decided  to  sever  its  connection  with  the  Union  movement 
"in  order  to  organize  a  new  denominational  society 
which  should  combine  foreign  missions  with  the  home 
work,  which  had  been  the  impulse  of  the  first  move- 
ment." After  this  organization,  to  which  was  given  the 
name  of  "The  Ladies'  Board  of  Missions,"  was  formed, 
the  Union  Society  was  reconstructed  and  continued  its 
work  along  the  lines  which  it  had  followed  in  the  past. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Graham,  the  Ladies' 
Board  of  Missions  made  itself  auxiliary  to  the  Home 
and  Foreign  Boards  and  sought  the  cooperation  of  auxil- 
iary societies  for  both  branches  of  the  work.  At  the 
close  of  its  first  year,  it  reported  forty-seven  auxiliaries, 
and  receipts  in  money  amounting  to  $7,647.06.  From 
this  date  it  contributed  to  both  departments  of  the  mis- 
sion work,  but  the  larger  part  of  its  funds  were  given  to 
the  new  developments  and  advanced  movements  of  the 
united  Church  in  the  foreign  field.  The  sphere  of  its 
operations  in  the  home  field  was  mainly  in  the  territories 
committed  to  Dr.  Jackson's  care,  and  his  advice  and 
cooperation  were  sought  in  connection  with  the  points 
which  the  officers  of  this  Board  decided  to  supply.  On 
the  8th  of  July,  1872,  Mrs.  "Graham,  president  of  the 
Ladies'  Board,  wrote  : — 

Your  Rocky  Mountain  paper  reaches  me  regularly,  and  I 
read  with  much  interest  the  great  work  that  is  doing  in  the 
formation  of  presbyteries,  organizing  new  churches,  etc.  I 
wish  I  could  say  that  we  could  send  you  help,  but  our  Board 
is  as  yet  but  a  little  thing,  although  I  hope  its  usefulness  may 
increase  in  the  course  of  time. 

At  a  later  period — January  1,  1873 — she  wrote  : — 

We  shall  always  look  to  you  to  suggest  objects  of  work  and 
interest.     If  we  can  do  them,  of  course  we  will.     Whenever 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS     263 

you  can  give  us  some  of  your  jottings  of  travel,  I  shall  be 
thankful  and  try  to  make  the  best  use  of  them. 

A  practical  difliculty  in  connection  with  a  proportion- 
ate distribution  of  funds  between  the  two  agencies  of  the 
Church  is  suggested  in  another  letter  under  date  of 
January  5,  1874  : — 

Dear  Mr.  Jackson : — I  send  you  one  of  our  annual  reports 
and  hope  that  you  will  have  a  notice  of  it  in  your  paper. 
Dr.  Dickson  thought  we  had  not  done  much  for  the  home 
work,  but  our  report  shows  the  contrary.  At  all  events,  we 
have  done  all  we  could.  It  is  perhaps  unfortunate  for  us  that 
we  did  not  turn  our  attention  exclusively  to  foreign  missions. 
If  we  had  done  so,  we  should  have  had  much  larger  receipts  to 
show.  Now  when  we  have  lost  so  much  by  our  adhesion  to 
the  home  work,  that  Board  don't  give  us  any  credit  for  it. 

From  this  and  other  indications  it  was  evident  to 
Dr.  Jackson  that  no  adequate  supi^ort  could  be  secured 
for  the  great  work  which  was  looming  up  before  him  in 
connection  with  the  evangelization  of  the  unreached 
masses  of  the  "exceptional  populations"  of  the  country, 
except  through  a  central  organization  which  had  but  one 
aim  and  which  could  appeal  directly  to  the  churches  on 
its  own  merits  and  in  its  own  behalf. 

From  abundant  evidence  in  hand,  it  is  clear  that  he  was 
the  proposer  and  first  advocate  of  concerted  action  among 
the  women  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  to  accomplish 
this  end.  In  this  he  stood  almost  alone  at  the  first,  and 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  in  no  other  undertaking  in  which  he 
was  engaged  was  he  subject  to  so  much  misapprehension, 
reproach,  and  determined  opposition.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1870,  he  published  earnest,  pathetic 
appeals,  addressed  to  Christian  women  in  behalf  of  the 
many  thousands  of  benighted  women  and  ignorant  chil- 
dren, within  the  limits  of  our  territorial  possessions  and 


264  SHELDON  JACKSON 

of  our  presbyteries  and  synods,  who  were  living  witliout 
the  knowledge  of  God,  and  were  as  utterly  neglected  as 
the  perishing  multitudes  in  far-away  heathen  lands.  In 
1872,  he  commenced  the  publication  of  the  Boclcy  Moun- 
tain Presbyterian^  which  was  made  the  special  advocate 
of  this  feature  of  woman's  work.  In  its  advocacy  at  this 
time,  however,  much  wisdom  and  no  little  tact  were 
required  with  respect  to  the  manner  of  its  presentation. 
There  was  a  deep-seated  and  widely  prevalent  prejudice 
in  the  minds  of  many  against  the  so-called  "exceptional 
classes"  in  the  territories;  and  where  this  did  not  exist 
there  was  a  tendency  to  regard  their  condition  with  in- 
difference, or  to  depreciate  any  efforts  which  were  being 
made  to  better  their  condition  or  transform  their  lives. 
Becognizing  the  fact  that  there  was  less  of  this  scepti- 
cism, as  to  results,  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  Chris- 
tian ladies  whom  he  addressed,  and,  where  it  did  exist, 
was  more  easily  overcome,  he  made  his  appeal  for  help 
first,  and  mainly  to  them. 

His  good  judgment  was  apparent,  also,  in  leaving  the 
school  work  in  the  background  until  its  need  was  felt  and 
its  place  assured,  through  the  natural  and  unforced  de- 
velopments of  the  work  of  the  missionaries  on  the  field. 
Hence,  in  the  first  years  of  this  advocacy,  emphasis  was 
laid  mainly  upon  the  building  of  chapels,  the  raising  of 
funds  to  supplement  the  salaries  of  missionaries,  where 
the  expenses  were  excessive  or  where  the  development  of 
new  work  at  points  of  special  interest  among  the  Mor- 
mons, Mexicans,  or  Indians  called  for  special  funds  which 
the  Board  was  unable  to  supply.  Meanwhile,  he  gladly 
availed  himself  of  aid  furnished  by  the  Ladies'  Union 
Missionary  Associations  or  by  individual  contributors 
who  were  moved  to  respond  to  his  appeals. 

In  1873,  the  Presbyteries  of  Colorado  and  Wyoming, — 
Utah  being  included  in  the  latter — endorsed  the  recom- 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS     2C5 

meudation  of  Dr.  Jackson  that  the  churches  within  their 
bounds  be  authorized  and  encouraged  to  form  distinct 
societies  in  the  interests  of  this  i)liase  of  the  home  mission 
work.  In  the  same  year,  he  prepared  and  published  a 
blank  constitution  for  the  use  of  congregations  desiring 
to  avail  themselves  of  this  recommendation,  which  be- 
came the  basis  of  similar  organizations,  in  after  years, 
all  over  the  country.  The  Seventeenth  Street  Church  of 
Denver,  with  which  the  Jackson  family  was  connected, 
was  one  of  the  first  churches  in  the  Presbytery  of  Colorado 
to  take  action  in  accordance  with  this  recommendation, 
and  Mrs.  Jackson  was  made  the  president  of  the  society 
thus  constituted. 

At  this  time,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  in  the  light  of 
present  conditions,  every  suggestion  that  the  sphere  of 
woman's  work  in  the  home  field  should  be  enlarged,  so  as 
to  include  the  establishment  of  mission  schools  or  the 
raising  of  funds  except  for  the  purpose  of  supx^lementing 
the  salary  of  missionary  labourers  on  the  frontier,  was 
met  with  disfavour  or  open  opposition.  In  the  strong 
Presbyterian  cities  of  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  and  Alle- 
gheny, where  arrangements  had  been  made  for  Dr.  Jack- 
son to  address  the  women  in  behalf  of  the  cause  he  repre- 
sented, the  pastors  of  the  churches  were  waited  ui)on  by 
a  committee  of  ladies  and  entreated  not  to  announce  the 
proposed  meetiugs  from  the  pulpit.  This  opposition  on 
the  pait  of  the  women,  representing  the  Foreign  Board, 
was  aroused  by  appeals  industriously  circulated  through 
the  religious  press  and  other  channels,  by  some  notable 
leaders  in  the  activities  of  the  Church,  who  claimed,  and 
no  doubt  honestly  believed,  that  the  policy  advocated  by 
Sheldon  Jackson  would  seriously  interfere  with  the  re- 
cently established  work  for  women  in  foreign  lands.  An- 
other hindrance  to  its  advocacy,  at  this  time,  was  the 
attitude  of  the  oflicials  of  the  Home  Board,  who  could  not 


266  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Bee  their  way  clear  to  authorize  or  commend  it.  After  a 
careful  study  of  the  situation,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
missionaries  on  the  frontier,  the  senior  secretary,  the 
Eev.  Henry  Kendall,  D.  D.,  who  at  first  was  not  favour- 
ably disposed,  eventually  gave  to  it  his  hearty  and  un- 
qualified support.  From  this  time  onward,  he  was 
closely  allied  with  Dr.  Jackson  in  a  long  continued  and 
persistent  effort  to  gain  for  this  cause  the  ,ai)proval  and 
sanction  of  the  highest  judicatories  of  the  Church.  At 
the  Assemblies  of  1875,  1876,  and  1877,  Drs.  Kendall  and 
Jackson  conducted  popular  meetings  in  behalf  of  this 
movement,  and  pressed  its  claims  upon  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Committees  of  the  several  assemblies.  Meetings  of 
a  similar  character  were  afterwards  continued  by  the 
Woman's  Executive  Committee.  As  the  result  of  their 
united  laboui's,  the  general  assemblies  of  1872  and  1873 
recommended  that  the  women  of  the  Church  should  attest 
their  interest  in  this  department  of  work  by  generous  con- 
tributions in  money,  as  well  as  in  the  preparation  of  "boxes 
of  clothing,"  for  the  missionaries  and  their  families. 

The  Assembly  of  1874  reiterated  this  recommendation 
and  designated  the  mouths  of  October  and  November  in 
which  special  attention  should  be  given  to  the  raising  of 
money  in  the  several  societies  or  churches,  for  the  Home 
Board.  In  this  connection  the  Board  was  directed  to  ap- 
point suitable  women  in  the  different  sections  of  the 
country  to  bring  the  matter  to  the  attention  of  the 
churches  and  societies  in  their  respective  districts. 

In  the  Assembly  of  1875,  there  was  a  marked  advance 
over  all  previous  deliverances.  After  careful  consider- 
ation of  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings,  this  assembly 
authorized  the  formation  of  a  distinct  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Association  under  the  advice  and  control  of 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  This  unequivocal  action 
cleared  the  way  for  the  formation  of  auxiliaries  through- 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    267 

out    the    Church,  and   several  presbyteries  aud  synods 
promptly  recommended  the  organization  of  such  societies. 

The  Assembly  of  1876  gave  additional  emphasis  to  the 
movement,  which  was  now  assuming  much  greater  im- 
portance, and  was  commanding  attention  in  every  part  of 
the  land,  by  authorizing  the  synods  to  appoint  commit- 
tees of  women  within  their  bounds  to  cooperate  with  the 
Board  in  the  prosecution  of  the  work.  Following  this 
action,  committees  were  appointed  at  the  autumn  meet- 
ings ensuing  by  seven  synods  of  the  Church,  viz.;  the 
Synods  of  Albany,  Cincinnati,  Colorado,  Michigan,  New 
Jersey,  New  York,  and  Pittsburg.  ''  With  the  increase 
of  woman's  societies,"  says  a  writer  in  the  ''  Presbyterian 
Encyclopedia,"  ''the  school  work  began  to  assume  such 
proportions  that  it  had  to  be  reckoned  with.  Conse- 
quently, the  Assembly  of  1877,  recognizing  the  fact  of  its 
existence,  formally  authorized  the  Board  to  assume  the 
charge  of  it  and  enlarge  it  as  rapidly  as  the  woman's  so- 
cieties provided  the  funds." 

In  bringing  this  matter  to  a  successful  issue,  able  as- 
sistance and  hearty  supjiort  were  given  by  Dr.  Kendall's 
veteran  assistant,  Dr.  Dickson  ;  Timothy  Hill,  represent- 
ing the  aborigines  of  the  Indian  Territory  ;  Thomas 
Frazer,  representing  the  "  exceptional  population "  of 
the  Pacific  coast ;  as  well  as  by  the  entire  force  of  mis- 
sionaries at  the  front,  who  were  face  to  face  with  the 
problem  of  evangelizing  the  masses  of  the  alien  semi- 
pagan  residents  of  their  respective  fields.  It  is  conceded 
by  all  who  took  part  in  this  movement,  however,  that  it 
was  the  coutiiuious,  persistent,  and  united  labours  of  its 
l^rime  movers,  Drs.  Kendall  and  Jackson,  duriug  the 
sessions  of  these  assemblies  which  aroused  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  commissioners  and  concentrated  tlieir  attention 
upon  the  most  important  points  connected  with  this  new 
development  of  mission  work. 


268  SHELDON  JACKSON 

This  successful  combination  of  effort  was  facetiously  set 
forth  by  Dr.  Gray,  of  TIte  Interior,  who  at  that  time  was 
not  friendly  to  the  movement,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Westminster  method  of  instruction  :  Question: 
"  Wherein  does  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  principally 
consist?"  Answer:  "The  Board  of  Home  Missions 
principally  consists  of  Dr.  Kendall  of  New  York  and  Dr. 
Jackson,  the  flying  horseman  of  the  Eockies." 

To  the  seven  synodical  committees,  above  mentioned, 
seven  more  were  added  by  the  spring  of  1877,  but  as  yet 
the  movement  had  not  culminated  in  a  national  organiza- 
tion. This  was  owing  partly  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
leading  workers  in  the  various  associations  which  had 
been  formed,  or  were  forming,  had  the  impression  that  it 
would  be  better  to  work  through  such  organizations  as 
the  "Ladies'  Board  of  New  York,"  which  already  had 
great  influence,  and  worked  in  the  interests  of  both 
Boards.  Another  cause  of  delay  or  hesitancy,  was  the 
strenuous  objection  made  by  the  leading  representatives 
of  the  Foreign  Board  in  New  York  and  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Mission  Board  in  Philadelphia,  to  the  erection  of 
another  distinct  association  for  mission  work. 

Through  all  the  phases  and  developments  of  the  move- 
ment, Sheldon  Jackson  held  persistently  and  consistently 
to  the  view  that  the  best  results  could  only  be  secured 
for  the  home  work  by  the  creation  of  a  distinct  central 
society.  His  experience  in  the  field  had  convinced  him 
that  the  work  to  be  done  was  of  such  a  character  that  it 
must  stand  upon  its  own  foundation  aud  make  its  appeal 
on  its  own  merits  :  and  in  proportion  to  its  relative  im- 
portance and  urgent  necessities.  It  was  evident  to  him, 
also,  that  no  just  proportion  could  be  assigned  to  either 
department  of  the  work  through  the  agency  of  a  Union 
Society,  without  the  danger  of  precipitating  a  conflict  of 
oi)inion,  if  not  of  antagonistic  interests. 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    269 

In  the  Home  Board  itself,  there  was  no  settled  opinion 
or  outline  of  definite  jpolicy  in  reference  to  the  best  modes 
of  procedure,  prior  to  the  middle  of  the  decade  in  which 
this  phase  of  the  work  originated.  On  the  17th  of  June, 
1875,  Dr.  Kendall  wrote  : 
'*  Dear  Beothee  Jackson  : — 

'*  We  have  yours  on  woman's  work.  I  think  we 
shall  lay  the  matter  before  the  Board  next  week  and  ask 
for  a  committee  of  five  to  take  the  matter  into  considera- 
tion as  to  '  ways  and  means.'  My  mind  starts  the  fol- 
lowing queries  :  Give  me  your  thoughts  on  the  subject. 
1.  Shall  we  try  to  bring  the  New  York  Society  to  become 
wholly  home  mission'?  2.  Failing  in  that,  shall  we 
adopt  or  recommend  it  as  it  is?  Or  3.  Shall  we 
organize  another  society  with  headquarters  here  ?  Would 
not  that  bring  us  into  collision  with  Mrs.  Graham's  or 
the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  and  its  auxiliaries  ?  Or 
4.  Shall  we  dispense  with  a  great  central  organization 
such  as  Mrs.  Graham's  or  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
at  Philadelphia,  and  work  only  presbyterially  and 
synodically  beyond  the  individual  church?  I  should 
like  your  views  about  it.  If  this  committee  advise  a 
vigorous  movement  I  shall  recommend  that  you  come 
East,  about  the  time  the  fall  meetings  are  held,  and  work 
as  far  as  possible  through  them  ;  then  through  the  synods, 
and  then  in  the  cities  and  large  towns,  until  the  begin- 
ning of  January,  perhaps  longer." 

These  queries  indicate  very  plainly  the  difliculties  con- 
nected with  the  introduction  of  this  new  agency,  so  as  to 
take  up  the  work  efficiently,  and  at  the  same  time  avoid 
unnccessaiy  friction  with  the  recognized  agencies,  united 
or  separate,  already  at  work. 

With  a  view  to  pushing  the  interests  of  this  outgrowth 
of  the  work  more  vigorously,  Dr.  Kendall,  under  date  of 
August  30,  1875,  wrote  : — 


210  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Dear  Brother  Jackson  :  — 

We  want  you  to  come  East  and  make  a  campaign,  first 
among  the  synods  and  then  in  the  cities,  and,  in  working  the 
matter  up,  we  would  like  you  to  visit  as  many  of  the  Eastern 
synods  as  possible,  and  if  it  comes  convenient  to  be  at  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Albany,  Baltimore,  Harrisburg,  Philadel- 
phia, or  Pittsburg,  Central  and  Western  New  York :  all  or  as 
many  as  possible  and  as  far  East  as  possible,  other  things 
being  equal,  for  here  is  the  money.  After  the  synod  we  must 
move  among  the  masses,  stirring  up  the  women  in  city  and 
country  in  this  great  work.  If  we  cannot  organize  as  we 
would,  we  must  work  as  we  did  last  year,  only  more  exten- 
sively and  vigorously.  We  wish  you  to  confine  yourself  before 
the  synods  to  the  woman's  work  and  the  Sabbath-school  work, 
and  leave  the  general  missionary  appeals  to  others  or  to  them- 
selves. But  press  home  on  them  this  one  feature — women's 
and  children's  work  for  women  and  children  on  home  mission 
fields. 

The  instructions  contained  in  this  letter  were  carried 
out  at  the  time  designated,  and  ''  the  campaign  "  so  care- 
fully outlined  had  much  to  do  with  the  shaping  of  events 
in  the  after  development  of  the  work.  Meanwhile,  the 
Bocky  Mountain  Presbyterian  kept  before  the  Church  and 
its  ministry  the  needy  condition  of  the  fields  for  which 
this  provision  was  being  made,  and  the  necessity  for 
prompt  action  on  their  behalf. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1876,  a  plan  for  the  codpera- 
tion  of  the  women's  societies  with  the  Board  was  adopted 
and  published.  Up  to  this  date,  however,  the  question  of 
"school  work"  had  not  been  officially  considered.  In 
several  instances  the  missionaries  in  the  field  had  estab- 
lished schools  under  the  direction  of  the  superintendent, 
where  funds  had  been  provided  by  indej)endent  societies 
or  individuals,  but  the  Board  did  not  assume  the  author- 
ity to  plant  them  or  to  formally  accept  the  charge  of 
them.  In  the  autumn  of  this  year,  a  gift  of  $500  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  treasurer,  for  the  employment 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    271 

of  teachers  in  Utah,  under  the  supervision  of  the  mission- 
aries. In  connection  with  its  acceptance,  the  following 
action  was  taken  : — 

^^  Resolved, — That  the  secretaries  be  authorized  to  ex- 
pend the  amount  thus  contributed,  for  the  purpose  in- 
dicated, without  further  commitment  of  this  Board.'' 
This  cautious  deliverance  blazed  the  way  for  the  con- 
sideration and  hearty  approval  of  educational  work  on  the 
home  field  by  the  Assembly  of  1877,  ^^  as  rajjidly  as  the 
women'' s  societies  sliould provide  the  funds.^^  In  December 
of  the  same  year,  the  school  work  among  the  exceptional 
populations  was  formally  undertaken  by  the  Home 
Board  and  the  first  teachers,  sixteen  in  number,  were 
commissioned. 

In  January,  1878,  by  previous  arrangement.  Dr.  Jack- 
son addressed  a  series  of  conferences  and  public  meet- 
ings in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  in  the  interests  of 
the  work.  At  this  stage  of  its  develoiimeut,  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  movement  which  had  been  slowly  gathering 
force  in  some  quarters  was  manifested  in  open  antago- 
nism towards  those  who  advocated  or  encouraged  it. 

In  these  addresses  it  was  shown  with  convincing  force 
that  the  condition  of  the  pagan  and  lapsed  masses  in 
Alaska,  Utah,  and  the  Southwestern  territories,  living 
under  the  flag  and  recognized  as  the  wards  of  the  nation, 
called  for  special  effort  which  could  not  be  compared 
with  or  measured  by  the  standards  of  the  foreign  field. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  inability  of  the  Foreign  Board  to 
meet  this  emergency,  the  facts  were  cited  tliat  within  the 
limits  of  the  great  field  covered  by  the  Synod  of  Colorado, 
which  contained  the  largest  number  of  the  exceptional 
population  of  the  country,  there  was  not  then,  and  had  not 
been  for  years,  a  single  missionary  eonmiissioned  by  (his 
Board  :  and  also  that  the  Indian  tribes  within  its  borders, 
which  had  been  given  over  to  the  care  of  the  Presbyterian 


272  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Churcli,  under  tlie  admiuistration  of  President  Grant,  had 
been  neglected  and  left  without  a  teacher  or  i)reacher,  so 
far  as  this  Board  was  concerned,  for  a  period  of  over  six 
or  seven  years.  Furthermore,  it  was  made  plain,  that 
the  object  of  the  movement,  for  which  an  impartial  hear- 
ing was  demanded,  was  not  to  divide,  but  rather  to  in- 
crease the  activity  and  efficiency,  of  the  women  of  the 
Church,  a  mere  tithe  of  whom  were  at  the  time  enlisted 
for  aggressive  mission  work. 

Nothing  daunted  by  the  opposition  which  met  him  at 
every  turn,  in  these  trying  days,  Sheldon  Jackson  supx)le- 
mented  his  addresses  by  personal  letters  to  influential 
women  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  with  special  reference  to 
the  formation  of  a  central  organization  for  the  unification 
of  the  work  so  auspiciously  begun.  With  a  view  to  bring- 
ing this  matter  to  a  decision,  he  urged  the  officers  of  the 
Syuodical  Home  Mission  Societies  to  call  a  general  con- 
vention for  the  formation  of  a  central  organization  for  the 
whole  Church.  This  they  hesitated  to  do,  because  of  the 
impression  which  generally  prevailed,  that  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  was  the  ijroper  authority  to  issue  the  call. 
He  then  applied  to  the  secretaries  of  the  Board  to  arrange 
for  such  a  meeting,  but  the  members  of  the  Board  were 
divided  in  opinion  as  to  the  expediency  of  taking  such 
action,  and  the  secretaries  in  view  of  this  fact  were  un- 
willing to  take  the  responsibility.  Despairing  of  securing 
action  from  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  Church,  Dr. 
Jackson  issued  the  call  on  his  own  responsibility  and 
made  ariaugements  for  a  convention  of  women  to  meet  at 
Pittsburg,  Pa.,  on  the  24th  of  May,  1878,  to  consider  the 
desirability  of  effecting  the  organization  of  a  National 
Home  Mission  Society  for  the  women  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Having  called  the  meeting  he  carried  on  a  vig- 
orous correspondence  with  prominent  women  in  the 
several  synods  asking  their  cooperation  in  securing  a  full 


^VO:^LAls'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS     2Y3 

representation  and  a  satisfactory  issue  in  keeping  with  tlie 
importance  of  the  occasion. 

The  convention  was  held  at  the  appointed  time  in  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church.  Mrs.  W.  A.  Herron,  of  Pitts- 
burg, was  called  to  the  chair  and  Mrs.  Wilson  N.  Pax- 
ton  was  made  the  secretary  of  the  meeting.  The  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  letter  of  recent  date  written  by 
Mrs.  Paxton  to  Dr.  Jackson  gives  some  interesting  facts 
belonging  to  the  inner  history  of  this  movement. 

I  well  remember  the  almost  universal  opposition  you  met 
with  between  1870  and  1878  in  your  efforts  to  interest  the 
women  in  a  home  mission  organization. 

I  believe  I  was  the  first  one  to  write  you  to  come  to  Pittsburg 
and  Allegheny  and  address  our  ladies  on  woman's  work  in 
home  missions.  After  I  had  made  all  the  arrangements  for  the 
meeting,  and  sent  to  the  Presbyterian  pastors  of  those  cities 
notices  to  be  read  from  their  pulpits  on  the  Sabbath  preceding 
the  meeting,  a  committee  of  Presbyterian  women  visited  the 
several  pastors  and  plead  with  them  not  to  make  the  announce- 
ment, claiming  that  the  meeting  would  injure  the  woman's  for- 
eign mission  work.  There  was  much  feeling  over  the  meeting. 
While  waiting  for  the  audience  to  gather,  you  related  to  me  the 
opposition  that  you  had  met  shortly  before  from  the  foreign 
mission  women  in  Philadelphia,  and  that  you  had  only  suc- 
ceeded in  having  a  meeting  in  that  city  through  the  determined 
stand  of  Mrs.  Matthew  Newkirk,  Sr.,  who  secured  a  hall  and 
made  all  the  arrangements  for  the  meeting.  And  thus  you  said 
"  we  must  stand  by  you  and  back  you  up  in  Pittsburg."  Ui^on 
that  occasion  you  won  many  ladies  to  favour  a  woman's  home 
mission  organization.  That  feeling  of  apprehension,  that  a 
woman's  organization  for  home  missions  would  interfere  with 
women's  foreign  mission  work,  has  now  happily  passed  away  in 
the  great  success  of  both  societies. 

I  further  remember,  that,  when  failing  to  prevail  upon  any 
of  the  Women's  Sy nodical  Societies  of  Home  Missions,  either 
singly  or  collectively,  to  issue  a  call  for  a  general  meeting  to 
form  a  national  organization  of  Presbyterian  women  for  home 
missions,  you  issued  such  a  call  yourself  and  wrote  to  a  num- 
ber of  the  most  prominent  women  in  the  several  synods  for  their 


2T4  SHELDON  JACKSON 

cooperation  and  for  permission  to  use  their  names  as  vice-presi- 
dents of  the  proposed  organization,  and  that  you  asked  my  per- 
mission to  have  the  replies  of  said  women  sent  to  me  at  Alle- 
gheny, as  a  more  central  location  than  your  home  at  Denver 
for  gathering  the  replies,  inasmuch  as  the  convention  was 
called  to  meet  at  Pittsburg. 

But  for  your  persistent,  tireless,  and  wisely-directed  efforts, 
through  the  press  and  in  public  addresses  in  all  the  large  and 
many  of  the  smaller  cities  and  villages  of  the  north,  to  arouse 
the  women  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  to  organized  work  for 
home  missions  and  to  create  a  public  sentiment  favourable  to 
such  an  organization,  I  feel  sure  that  the  formation  of  "  The 
Woman's  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions"  would 
have  been  delayed  many  years. 

Those  of  us,  who  were  most  intimately  associated  with  you  in 
church  work  in  those  days,  know  that  you,  more  than  any  other, 
were  the  one  whom  God  used  for  the  organization  of  "  The 
Woman's  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions,"  and  I 
earnestly  hope  you  will  be  spared  to  write  the  inner  history  of 
how  it  was  accomplished. 


At  the  business  meeting  of  the  convention,  a  proposal 
to  form  a  Board,  similar  in  some  respects  to  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  to  be  located  in  New  York 
City,  was  presented  and  explained.  As  the  number  of 
representatives  present  was  relatively  small,  and  the 
sentiment  divided  as  to  the  best  method  of  procedure,  it 
was  suggested,  as  preliminary  to  further  action,  that  a 
committee  of  twelve  ladies  should  be  appointed  to  confer 
with  the  Ladies'  Board  of  Missions  in  New  York  as  to  the 
propriety  of  having  this  organization  devoted  exclusively 
to  the  work  of  home  missions,  so  that  it  might  become 
the  official  organ  of  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

This  proposal  met  with  favour  and  was  at  once  adopted. 
Mrs.  S.  F.  Scovel  of  Pittsburg  was  made  chairman,  and 
Mrs.  O.  E.  Boyd  of  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  secretary  of  the 
committee. 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    275 

The  conference,  as  previously  arranged,  was  held  in 
New  York  City,  July  lltli,  tlie  committee  having  spent 
the  preceding  day  at  Elizabeth  in  special  prayer  for 
Divine  guidance. 

The  Ladies'  Board,  after  careful  consideration,  declined 
to  make  the  proposed  change  in  their  organization  and 
the  committee,  in  accordance  with  previous  instructions, 
called  a  convention  of  the  synodical  committees  to  meet 
at  the  Bible  House,  New  York  City. 

This  meeting  was  held  on  the  12th  of  December,  1878, 
and  resulted  in  the  formal  organization  of  "  The  Woman's 
Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions."  This  modest 
title  was  assumed  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  a  conflict 
with  existing  institutions,  and  for  several  years  it  con- 
tinued to  be  the  official  title  of  this  central  organ  of  com- 
munication between  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  the 
synodical  committees. 

The  officers  of  the  new  organization  were  : — Mrs.  Ash- 
bel  Green,  president ;  Mrs.  S.  F.  Scovel,  and  Mrs.  J.  B. 
Dunn,  vice-presidents  ;  Mrs.  F.  E.  Haines,  corresponding 
secretary ;  Mrs.  J.  D.  Bedle,  recording  secretary ;  and 
Mrs.  M.  E.  Boyd,  treasurer. 

"Who  that  remembers  that  occasion,"  writes  Mrs.  Boyd  in 
after  years,  "does  not  recall  the  solemn  hush  of  that  hour, 
when  the  Master  through  the  sweet  calm  voice  of  our  chair- 
man, Mrs.  Scovel,  talked  to  us  of  holy  service.  '  If  I  wash  thee 
not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  Me  ;  and  if  I  then,  your  Lord  and 
Master,  wash  your  feet,  ye  ought  also  to  wash  one  another's  feet.' 
It  was  to  render  service  to  our  divine  Lord,  through  the  person 
of  our  benighted  and  neglected  fellow-countrymen,  that  this 
organization  was  effected  and  work  begun.  The  field  of  opera- 
tion was  the  exceptional  population  of  our  land  ;  the  object  to 
enlighten  and  Christianize  them.  Surely  such  a  gigantic  en- 
terprise, undertaken  by  a  few  feeble  but  earnest  women,  was 
not  the  product  of  human  invention,  else  its  history  would  have 
been  written  long  ago  in  disgrace  and  failure." 


276  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Mrs.  Green  lield  the  i^osition  to  which  she  was  called 
with  rare  ability  and  whole-hearted  devotion  to  the  work 
during  its  formative  period,  and  until  her  death,  on  the 
16th  of  August,  1885.  She  was  succeeded  by  Mrs.  Darwin 
R.  James,  a  leader  of  national  rei)utation,  who,  by  her 
noble  example,  undaunted  faith,  and  unceasing  devotion 
to  this  sacred  trust  has  won  the  hearts,  inspired  the  con- 
fidence, and  stimulated  the  endeavours  of  all  who  have 
laboured  with  her.  Her  period  of  service  has  been  one 
of  continuous  advance  and  enlargement :  and,  with  un- 
diminished vigour  she  still  presides  over  the  noble  baud 
of  consecrated  women  who  have  joined  hands  and  united 
prayers  with  her  in  this  good  work. 

It  will  be  admitted  by  all  who  are  familiar  with  the 
events  which  led  up  to  the  formation  of  the  Woman's  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  that  Mrs.  R.  F.  Haines,  of  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey,  who  by  unanimous  consent  was  chosen  to  be 
its  corresponding  secretary,  was  the  most  active  and  ef- 
ficient agent  in  the  formation  and  shaping  of  this  enter- 
prise. Her  correspondence  with  Dr.  Jackson  in  its  in- 
cipient stages  and  developments,  indicates  the  wisdom  of 
her  counsels,  as  well  as  the  depth  of  her  interest,  which 
never  seemed  to  flag,  despite  the  discouragements  and 
conflicts  of  opinion  encountered  on  every  hand.  Her 
sweet  spirit  and  saintly  life  were  manifest  in  all  her  la- 
bours and  trials :  and,  with  unreserved  dedication  she 
gave  "her  brain,  time,  money,  and  strength  freely  and 
voluntarily  to  this  cause."  As  one  of  the  missionaries  in 
Utah  once  expressed  it : — "To  many  of  us,  the  Woman's 
Executive  Committee  seemed  to  be  personified  in  Mrs. 
Haines,  and  its  energies  and  lively  sympathies  to  be  con- 
centrated in  her.  She  embodied  its  faith,  its  daring  spirit, 
its  conquering  aggressiveness,  and  the  largeness  of  its  de- 
sire concerning  the  work  which  had  been  committed 
to  it." 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    277 

In  a  notable  anniversary  address,  given  at  the  annual 
meeting  in  May,  1904,  Mrs.  James  ranked  Mrs.  Haines 
with  the  first  three,  who  were  worthy  of  special  mention 
in  connection  with  the  founding  of  the  Woman's  Execu- 
tive Committee : — 

''Three  names  stand  with  prominent  brilliancy  at  the 
beginning  of  our  organization,  those  of  Eev.  Henry  Ken- 
dall, D.  D.,  Eev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  and  Mrs.  F.  E. 
Haines.  To  Dr.  Jackson,  however,  more  than  is  gen- 
erally known,  this  Board  owes  a  debt  of  unceasing  grati- 
tude, and  when  the  life  of  that  remarkable  man  shall  be 
written,  one  will  see  how  from  the  very  beginning  to  the 
present  time  his  help  has  been  freely  given  to  aid  our 
work." 

In  the  reminiscence  hour  at  the  same  meeting.  Dr.  Jack- 
son was  requested  to  give  an  account  of  the  steps  which 
led  to  the  formation  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Commit- 
tee, then  known  as  the  Woman's  Board.  In  resx)Ouse,  he 
said : — 


It  will  be  necessary  to  speak  in  a  personal  manner.  I  was 
sent  to  the  frontier  as  a  young  missionary  to  do  missionary  work 
among  the  Indians,  but  as  I  looked  over  the  field  I  could  do 
little  without  the  aid  of  a  missionary  teacher.  I  wrote  Dr. 
Kendall,  then  secretary  of  the  Board,  that  we  must  have  a 
teacher  to  go  into  the  homes  of  the  Indians,  to  gather  the 
children,  and  to  open  the  way  for  the  minister.  Later  I  came 
in  contact  with  the  Mexicans,  with  the  same  result.  To  my 
appeal,  Dr.  Kendall  replied  that  the  Board  did  not  have  a  cent 
to  devote  to  employing  missionary  teachers.  "  We  can  send 
you  a  preacher,  though."  To  which  I  wrote  back:  "They 
won't  come  to  hear  preachers  :  send  us  a  teacher."  Still  there 
was  no  money  for  teachers.  I  said  to  Dr.  Kendall :  "  Wc  must 
have  a  Woman's  Society  for  Home  Missions."  Dr.  Kendall 
saw  there  was  something  lacking  for  effective  work  on  the  field 
and  tried  to  secure  the  organization  of  a  woman's  national  home 
missionary  society  for  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  original 
of  this  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  had  two  members, 


2Y8  SHELDON  JACKSON 

both  men !  Dr.  Henry  Kendall  and  myself.  Dr.  Kendall 
was  president  and  I  was  secretary.  While  at  the  General 
Assembly  we  would  announce  that  there  would  be  a  Woman's 
Home  Mission  rally,  and  it  was  not  hard  to  fill  the 
largest  hall  or  church  with  women  who  would  come  in 
response  to  such  an  invitation,  but  an  organization  was 
not  effected  for  some  years.  It  was  not  easy  to  convince  the 
women  of  the  necessity  for  such  an  organization.  The  first 
recommendation  of  the  General  Assembly  was  that  in  addition 
to  its  box  work,  the  women  should  be  encouraged  to  give  money 
towards  home  missions.  In  the  two  following  assemblies,  it 
was  recommended  that  women  should  organize  definitely  for 
this  work. 

Finally,  in  response  to  repeated  solicitations,  a  meeting  was 
called  in  Pittsburg,  and  the  women  coming  together  there,  be- 
came convinced  of  the  necessity  for  organization,  and  took  the 
work  then  and  there  out  of  my  hands,  and  they  have  carried  it 
on  with  great  success  ever  since. 

To  facilitate  the  work  of  this  new  organization,  Dr. 
Jackson  offered  the  free  use  of  the  columns  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Presbyterian.  This  offer  was  gratefully  accepted, 
and  that  paper  became  the  official  organ  of  the  com- 
mittee. 

Its  name  was  changed  January  1,  1881,  to  the  broader 
title  "  Presbyterian  Home  Missions,"  to  accord  with  the 
wider  sweep  of  its  range  and  influence.  At  the  close  of 
this  year,  he  presented  the  paper  with  its  greatly  aug- 
mented list  of  subscribers  to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions. 

Four  years  later,  the  executive  committee  undertook 
the  publication  of  a  magazine,  which  was  named  the 
Home  Mission  Monthly.  Within  a  few  months  of  its  is- 
sue, it  numbered  ten  thousand  paid  subscribers,  and  its 
success,  under  the  able  and  efficient  management  of  Mrs. 
Delos  E.  Finks,  its  only  editor — has  been  phenomenal. 

To  this  work  Mrs.  Finks  came  with  the  experience  of 
more  than  a  decade  of  blessed  service  as  the  wife  of  a  de- 
voted home  missionary  in  Colorado,  having  crossed  the 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS    279 

plains  on  her  bridal  tour,  in  the  early  seventies.  The 
magazine  has  not  only  been  self-supporting  from  the  start, 
but  has  paid  over  to  the  general  fund  a  large  sum,  in  the 
aggregate,  from  its  surplus,  over  all  expenditures,  year 
by  year.  On  its  twentieth  anniversary,  its  surplus  for  the 
year  was  more  than  $2, 500 — enough,  as  thesecretary  puts  it, 
to  support  five  day-school  teachers  in  Porto  Rico  and  Cuba. 

In  a  recent  communication,  Mrs.  Finks  gratefully 
acknowledges  the  personal  assistance  rendered  to  her  as 
well  as  to  the  cause  she  represents  by  Dr.  Jackson,  and 
adds: — "He  stood  behind  the  overtures  which  went  to 
the  General  Assembly  relative  to  the  formation  of  a 
"Woman's  Home  Mission  organization,  and  was  the  firm 
friend  and  wise  counsellor  in  those  early  days.  His  life 
has  been  one  of  far-reaching  influence  and  unflinching 
zeal  and  devotion." 

In  1880,  the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions  of  the  South- 
west, and,  in  1882,  the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions  of 
Long  Island,  connected  their  home  work  with  the  execu- 
tive committee.  One  year  later,  the  Ladies'  Board  of 
Missions  of  New  York  discontinued  their  home  depart- 
ment, which  was  also  consolidated  with  the  Woman's 
Executive  Committee. 

Thus,  at  length,  without  friction  or  abatement  of  zeal 
for  either  cause,  conflicting  interests  were  harmonized 
and  a  great  National  Association  pledged  to  the  work 
of  home  evangelization  grew  up  alongside  of  its  sister 
organization  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  The 
motto  of  the  one  was  "The  world  for  Christ"  ;  the  motto 
of  the  other  was  "Our  country  for  Christ,  that  through 
its  influence  the  world  may  be  more  quickly  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  Him."  The  methods  and  proportionate 
expenditures  could  not  be  harmonized  or  brought  before 
the  Church  in  one  budget,  but  each  department  along  its 
own  lines  did  its  work  effectively,  and  perhaps  all  the 


S80  SHELDON  JACKSON 

more  successfully  because  the  leaders  of  each  had  a  free 
hand  and  a  wide,  unrestricted  field.  None  of  the  evil 
things  which  were  prophesied  concerning  the  division  or 
transference  of  funds  and  the  wrecking  of  the  foreign 
work,  in  some  sections  of  the  land,  ever  hax)i)ened  in  the 
practical  working  of  these  organizations.  Within  the 
limits  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  it  was  soon  found  that 
there  was  ample  room  for  both  5  and  marvellous  was  the 
growth  of  each  as  in  generous  rivalry  this  ever-increasing 
host  of  noble  women  laboured  side  by  side,  for  one  or 
both,  as  it  seemed  best  to  them,  for  the  furtherance  and 
extension  of  the  kingdom  of  their  common  Lord. 

In  1885,  the  field  of  work  assigned  to  the  Woman's 
Executive  Committee  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a 
department  of  instruction  for  the  benefit  of  the  ignorant 
masses  of  the  negro  race  in  the  South,  A  year  later,  the 
needy  whites  of  the  Southern  mountains  were  included, 
by  action  of  the  General  Assembly,  within  its  sphere  of 
work  and  influence.  In  1893,  a  Young  People's  Depart- 
ment was  added,  to  promote  intelligent,  systematic  work 
among  the  various  organizations  of  the  young  people  in 
the  Church,  and  a  superintendent  of  schools  was  ap- 
pointed to  have  general  oversight  of  the  educational 
work.  In  1895,  there  was  a  further  enlargement  of  the 
work  to  include  missionary  effort  among  the  immigrant 
populations  of  foreign  tongues  in  the  mining  and  other 
industrial  sections  of  the  country.  Another  advance  was 
made  in  the  same  year  in  the  commissioning  of  women 
other  than  teachers,  for  missionary  work  in  the  homes  of 
the  mountaineers  of  the  South,  and  wherever  similar 
work  should  be  needed.  In  1897,  the  name  was  changed 
to  "  T/ie  Woman'' s  Board  of  Home  Missions,^'  to  indicate 
more  clearly  the  national  scope  of  its  work.  In  the  same 
year,  the  maintenance  of  preachers  of  the  Gospel  in 
churches   connected  with   or  growing  out  of  the  mis- 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS     281 

siou  schools,  was  uudertaken.  In  1899,  the  missionary- 
teachers  of  this  Board  followed  tho  flag  to  Porto  Kico 
and  Cuba  ;  and  in  the  schools  and  hospitals  and  mission 
stations  already  established  there  a  work  of  marvellous 
extent,  and  still  more  marvellous  transforming  power, 
has  been  already  accomplished. 

During  the  first  year  of  its  existence  the  Woman's 
Executive  Committee  suj)ported  twenty  teachers  commis- 
sioned for  its  field,  and  its  receiiJts  from  all  sources  were 
$5,296. 

In  1908,  twenty-nine  years  after  its  organization,  this 
splendidly  equipped  agency  for  the  evangelization  of 
our  land  reported  a  missionary  force  of  442,  and  an  offering 
of  more  than  a  half  million  dollars.  While  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  this  work  can  only  be  estimated  by  the  mathe- 
matics of  the  angels,  its  reflex  influence  has  also  been 
very  great.  It  has  developed  a  nobler  type  of  woman- 
hood and  a  higher  ideal  of  patriotism.  And  it  has 
added  immeasurably  to  the  effective  working  force  of  our 
churches  by  diverting  lives  that  otherwise  might  have 
been  aimless  and  worldly  minded  into  the  noblest  forms 
of  Christian  life  and  activity. 

The  story  of  its  conquests  over  superstition  and  sin  ;  of 
its  wonderful  influence  in  moulding  sentiment  and  quick- 
ening the  public  conscience  in  dealing  with  the  abo- 
rigines of  the  land  ;  of  its  influence  as  a  potent  factor  in 
exposing  and  resisting  the  debasing  influences  of  Mor- 
monism  at  the  capitol  of  the  Nation,  as  well  as  in  the 
strongholds  of  its  possessions  ;  of  its  marvellously  rapid 
growth  and  widely  diversified  forms  of  consecrated  and 
concentrated  activities — do  not  properly  come  within  the 
range  of  this  chapter.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  this  Woman's 
Board  is  to-day  the  largest  and  most  eflieient  evangel- 
istic agency,  of  its  kind,  in  this,  or  any  other  nation  of 
Christendom. 


282  SHELDON  JACKSON 

The  writer  has  watched  this  movement  from  its  earliest 
beginnings  and  development,  has  sympathized,  and  la- 
boured, to  some  extent,  with  those  who  were  its  prime 
movers  in  the  day  of  small  things,  and  it  has  been  his 
aim  to  i)resent  mainly  the  facts  which  relate  to  that 
period  of  its  history  and  growth  ;  to  the  intent  that 
honour  may  be  given  to  those  who  toiled  at  the  foun- 
dations, to  whom  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term  honour 
is  due. 


Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  Notable 
Superintendents  of  AIissions. 

{For  names  sec  Appendix,  page  482.     Group  7.) 


XIII 

PIONEER  WORK  OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF 
COLORADO 

Texas — Nevada — Idaho — Alaska 
{1870-1880) 

"  He  had  the  eye  of  an  explorer,  which  always  rests  on  the  horizon  ; 
and  his  desires  ran  ahead  of  his  vision." — The  Prospector. 

THE  initial  work  of  exploration  and  evangeliza- 
tion which  has  been  described  in  detail  in  the 
preceding  chapters,  ranged  over  six  of  the 
largest  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  territories,  and  was 
crowded  into  a  period  covering  a  little  more  than  a 
decade  of  active  service.  With  hands  full  and  heart 
burdened  with  the  daily  demands  of  this  great  work,  so 
varied  in  its  nature  and  so  j^ressing  in  its  claims,  Sheldon 
Jackson,  nevertheless,  found  time  for  the  study  of  the 
needy  fields  beyond  the  limits  of  his  prescribed  range  of 
official  tenure  and  oversight.  In  the  columns  of  the 
Rocky  3Iountain  FrcshytcruDi  and  in  public  addresses  he 
urged  the  occupation,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  of  every 
section  of  the  newer  portions  of  the  land,  and  kept  in 
close  touch  with  every  movement  which  had  for  its  object 
the  enlightenment  and  evangelization  of  its  exceptional 
population. 

In  the  winter  of  1872,  he  reached  out  a  helping  hand 
across  the  border  of  Utah,  to  a  little  band  of  evangelical 
Christians  in  Pioche,  a  prosperous  mining  town  in  Ne- 
vada. At  this  time,  the  secretaries  of  the  Board  could 
give  no  assurance  of  assistance  in  the  support  of  a  mis- 
sionary for  that  field.     It  was  the  centre  of  a  community, 

283 


284  SHELDON  JACKSON 

however,  destitute  of  gospel  privileges,  with  a  population 
of  about  five  thousand  souls,  aud  without  question  as  to 
boLiiidary  Hues,  or  prospective  sux^port,  Dr.  Jacksou  took 
it  under  his  care.  In  reply  to  an  inquiry  of  Mr.  John 
Paul  Egbert,  a  student  at  Princeton  Theological  Semi- 
nary, who  was  seeking  a  temporary  field  of  labour  in  the 
New  West,  he  directed  attention  to  this  place  and  recom- 
mended him  to  visit  it.  Mr.  Egbert,  who  has  since 
served  the  Church  in  some  of  its  most  important  fields  of 
labour,  in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West,  went  to  Pioche 
at  once,  and  in  a  short  time  gathered  an  interesting  and 
enthusiastic  congregation.  An  organization  was  effected 
on  the  first  day  of  May,  1873  ;  but  soon  after  Mr.  Egbert 
was  obliged  to  leave  the  field  in  consequence  of  a  severe 
attack  of  illness.  His  successor,  the  Eev.  H.  B.  McBride, 
of  the  McCormick  Theological  Seminary,  was  also  secured 
through  the  influence  of  Sheldon  Jackson.  The  congre- 
gation provided  for  the  greater  part  of  the  support  of 
both  of  these  young  men,  and  that  which  was  lacking 
was  made  up  to  them  from  the  hitherto  unfailing  supply 
of  the  ''EavenFund." 

The  following  letter,  which  came  to  hand  a  few  days 
after  the  date  of  the  organization  of  the  church  at  Pioche, 
is  given  as  an  instance  of  timely  aid  from  unexpected 
sources  outside  the  regular  channels  of  communication 
and  supj)ly  :  — 

Wesf  Chester,  Pa.,  May  13,  1873. 
Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson, 

Dear  Sir  : — Our  good  friend,  Mrs. ,  whose  interest 

in  mission  work  here,  in  the  West  and  in  foreign  fields,  is  ever 
warm,  has  entrusted  me  with  ^100  for  mission  work  in  the 
West,  which  we  think  had  better  be  given  to  you  to  be  ex- 
pended according  to  your  judgment.  We  trust  through  this 
some  may  be  taught  to  know,  love,  and  serve  God. 

Your  friend, 

S.  M.  Dickson. 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     285 

A' few  months  later,  another  friend  from  the  same  place 
v/rites : — 

I  will  enclose  a  draft  which  you  will  use  as  your  judgment 
dictates,  either  for  the  support  of  missionaries  now  in  the  field, 
or  towards  building  a  church.  What  is  over  ^loo  please  use 
for  your  paper  or  rather  your  private  missionary  work. 

Thus  through  voluntary  offerings,  unhampered  for  the 
most  part  by  limitations,  Dr.  Jackson  was  given  the  op- 
portunity ofttimes  to  supplement  the  insufticieut  aid  fur- 
nished by  the  Board,  or  to  seize  opportunities  in  advance 
of  the  tardy  processes  of  official  action. 

In  the  summer  of  1874,  the  needs  of  the  great  and 
rapidly-growing  state  of  Texas  appealed  strongly  to  his 
sympathies,  and  he  was  urged  by  some  of  his  j^ersoual 
fi'iends  to  consider  its  claims  with  a  view  to  undertaking 
the  superintendency  of  the  missionary  work  within  its 
limits.  With  the  approval  of  the  officials  of  the  Board, 
he  made  a  tour  of  exploration  through  some  of  the  sec- 
tions of  the  state  which  gave  promise  of  the  most  rapid 
development,  noting  the  conditions  and  exigencies  of 
the  several  points  of  special  interest  in  each.  This  jour- 
ney, which  occui^ied  less  than  a  month  of  the  autumn 
season,  covered  a  distance  of  3,500  miles.  It  included 
Junction  City,  Austin,  Galveston,  San  Antonio,  Fort 
Scott,  and  other  important  centres  of  growth  and  in- 
fluence. With  respect  to  this  tour  and  the  reasons  for 
making  it  Dr.  Jackson  writes  : — 


I  went  to  Texas  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Kendall.  At  the 
time  Texas  was  receiving  a  very  large  emigration,  and  Dr. 
Kendall  was  disposed  to  transfer  me  from  the  Rocky  Mountain 
field  to  that  of  Texas,  as  superintendent  of  missions,  and  prob- 
ably wanted  to  give  me  a  chance  of  seeing  what  I  thought  of 
Texas.     He  secured  from  William  E.   Dodge  free  passes  for 


286  SHELDON  JACKSON 

myself  and  wife  over  all  the  railroad  lines  in  the  state.  Both 
Mrs.  Jackson  and  myself  concluded  that  the  climate  would  not 
suit  us,  consequently  no  change  of  location  was  made. 

In  the  spring  of  1877,  the  Eev.  E.  B.  Wright,  of  Aus- 
tin, Texas,  made  another  earnest  but  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  secure  Dr.  Jackson  for  this  field.  Under  date  of 
April  17th,  he  writes  : — 

Are  you  not  by  this  time  aching  for  "  New  Worlds  "  to  con- 
quer ?  I  hope  so,  and  that  you  will  conclude  "  Texas  "  to  be" 
a  prominent  enough  world  to  suit  your  ambition.  Our  con- 
dition is  this :  the  work  is  growing  upon  us ;  immigration  is 
pouring  in  and  bids  fair  to  be  a  continual  stream  for  years :  and 
to-day  there  is  no  better  ground  for  mission  work  in  the  United 
States  than  the  state  of  Texas.  ...  It  is,  therefore,  evi- 
dent that  we  must  have  a  superintendent  for  our  work,  of  grit, 
grace,  and  experience.  Very  much  depends  on  the  man  we 
get.  .  .  .  Like  Diogenes,  we  must  light  our  lamp  and 
hunt  for  a  man  and  we  ought  to  have  him  early  on  the  ground 
next  fall.  .  .  .  Now  please  write  me  a  letter  and  give  a 
hint  that  it  is  possible  that  we  can  get  you.  Do  not  be  too 
quick  to  think,  or  to  say  "no."  If  you  will  but  give  me  a 
hint  to  encourage  us,  I  think  I  can  make  up  all  the  details  in 
such  a  way  as  will  save  you  from  any  annoyance  in  the  matter. 

There  was  another  field  in  the  remote  regions  of  the 
Northwest,  the  almost  unknown  province  of  Alaska,  to 
which  this  dauntless  missionary  explorer  longed  to  go,  as 
far  back  as  the  early  days  of  the  seventies,  but  the  way  of 
approach  to  it  at  that  time  was  not  yet  open.  From  the 
date  of  its  transfer  by  the  Eussiau  authorities  to  the 
government  and  protection  of  the  United  States,  frequent 
appeals  had  been  made  to  the  churches  and  missionary 
societies  of  the  several  Protestant  denominations  of  the 
country,  by  Christian  women,  civilians,  and  government 
officials,  residing  in  Alaska,  in  behalf  of  its  deluded  and 
degraded  natives,   thousands  of  whom  had  never  even 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     287 

heard  the  name  of  the  Saviour  of  sinners,  but  for  several 
years  there  was  no  response  to  these  appeals  and  the  land 
■was  literally  shrouded  in  the  gross  darkness  of  hea- 
thenism. 

As  early  as  1869,  two  years  after  the  transfer  of  Alaska 
to  the  United  States,  Mr.  Vincent  Colyer,  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners,  made  a  tour  of  ex- 
ploration into  a  iDortion  of  this  new  possession,  and,  upon 
his  retui'u,  recommended  the  immediate  establishment  of 
schools  among  its  ignorant  native  population,  numbering 
at  that  time  about  30, 000  souls.  In  accordance  with  this 
recommendation,  an  appropriation  of  $50,000  was  voted 
by  the  Congress  of  1870-1871,  but  no  provision  was  made 
for  the  administeriug  of  the  fund,  and  it  was  not  used. 

During  his  term  of  service  as  commander  of  the  Mili- 
tary Department  of  the  Northwest,  which  included 
Alaska,  Major-General  O.  O.  Howard  also  made  frequent 
and  urgent  requests  through  the  religious  newspapers  for 
missionaries  and  teachers  to  supply  the  jDressiug  need  of 
this  long- neglected  section  of  the  land. 

Stirred  by  the  thought  that  all  these  efforts  and  ai^peals 
had  failed  to  secure  a  single  missionary,  or  establish  a 
single  school  of  the  American  type  in  a  period  which 
covered  nearly  a  decade  of  American  occupation,  Sheldon 
Jackson  wrote  to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  in  the  win- 
ter of  1875,  and  again  in  1876,  urging  the  establishment 
of  a  Presbyterian  mission  among  the  Alaskans.  These 
requests  were  respectfully  cousidered,  but  this  far-away 
region  was  then  regarded  as  distinctively  foreign  mission 
ground,  and  for  this  reason,  mainly,  no  action  was  taken. 

About  the  same  time,  the  Rev.  A.  L.  Lindsley,  D.  D., 
of  Portland,  one  of  the  most  active  and  aggressive  leaders 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Oregon,  corresponded  with 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  with  respect  to  the  same 
thing.     This  Board  at  the  time  was  struggling  under  the 


288  SHELDON  JACKSON 

burden  of  a  heavy  debt ;  and  could  not  give  any  assur- 
ance of  help  to  Alaska,  then  or  in  the  near  future.  Its 
inability  to  meet  such  a  crisis  in  the  homeland,  was  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  it  had  not  established  a  new  mis- 
sion of  a  permanent  character  among  the  Indians  of  the 
country  since  the  year  1849. 

vThus  for  a  period  of  almost  ten  years  the  American  flag 
had  waved  over  a  broad  section  of  our  national  domain, 
containing  many  thousands  of  ignorant  and  degraded  in- 
habitants, in  which  there  were  no  churches  or  mission- 
aries of  the  evangelical  faith  :  no  schools  of  the  American 
type,  and,  for  a  still  longer  period,  no  ruler  by  official 
appointment ;  and  no  organized  form  of  government. 

At  length,  as  if  to  shame  the  great  Christian  nation 
which  had  so  culj)ably  neglected  them,  the  opening  of 
Alaska  to  missionary  work  came  through  agencies  outside 
the  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  from  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  ne^edy  people  themselves. 

There  are  few  instances  in  the  annals  of  mission  work 
in  any  land,  where  the  transforming  power  of  the  Gospel 
has  been  more  rapid  in  its  development,  and  more 
wonderful  in  its  results,  than  among  the  native  population 
over  the  border  line  in  British  Columbia,  during  the 
period  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 

In  the  autumn  of  1857,  Mr.  William  Duncan  came  to 

Fort  Simpson  and  at  once  began  his  labours  among  the 

Tsimpsean  Indians,    under  the  ausi)ices  of  the  Church 

Missionary  Society  of  England. 

• 

"  Here,"  he  says,  "  I  found  nine  tribes  of  Indians,  number- 
ing by  actual  count  2,300  souls.  To  attempt  a  description  of 
their  condition  would  be  but  to  produce  a  dark  and  revolting 
picture  of  human  depravity.  The  dark  mantle  of  degrading 
superstition  enveloped  them  all,  and  their  savage  spirits, 
swayed  by  pride,  jealousy,  and  revenge,  were  ever  hurrying 
them  on  to  deeds  of  blood.     Their  history  was  little  else  than  a 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     289 

chapter  of  crime  and  misery.  But,  worse  was  to  come.  The 
following  year  the  discovery  of  gold  brought  in  a  rush  of  miners. 
Fire-water  now  began  its  reign  of  terror,  and  debauchery  its 
work  of  desolation.  On  every  hand  were  raving  drunkards  and 
groaning  victims.  The  medicine-man's  rattle  and  the  voice  of 
wailing  seldom  ceased." 

In  the  midst  of  these  appalling  difficulties,  and  in  the 
face  of  perils  which  would  have  deterred  a  man  of  ordi- 
nary courage  and  faith,  Mr.  Duncan  set  himself  resolutely 
to  work.  As  he  told  in  simi)le  fashion  the  old  story  of 
redeeming  love,  some  of  the  hardened  hearts  before  him 
began  to  melt  ;  and  as  at  Antioch,  Corinth,  and  Ephesus, 
in  the  olden  time,  one  and  another  were  led  to  forsake 
their  evil  ways  and  heathen  practices  and  to  enter  into 
covenant  with  God  and  one  another  to  live  in  conformity 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  On  the 
28th  of  June,  Mr.  Duncan  opened  the  first  school  in  the 
house  of  a  friendly  chief,  with  twenty-six  children  and 
fifteen  adults.  Before  the  close  of  the  year  the  attendance 
had  increased  to  140  children  and  fifty  adults.  From 
this  time  the  interest  in  the  knowledge  of ''the  good 
way  "  began  to  increase  and  the  evil  influence  of  the  con- 
jurors, who  had  so  long  deceived  and  enthralled  them,  be- 
gan to  wane.  In  the  month  of  May,  1862,  a  devoted 
band  of  converts  to  the  faith  of  Christ  came  out  from  the 
evil  associations  which  environed  them  and  established  a 
Christian  village,  with  strict  regulations  concerning  life 
and  conduct,  at  a  place  thirty  miles  away,  called  Metlah- 
katlah.  In  his  description  of  this  remarkable  exodus, 
Mr.  Duncan  says  : — 

When  all  were  seated  in  the  place  of  assembly  the  ques- 
tion was  put,  "  Will  any  one  stand  out  in  the  midst  of  the 
scoffing  heathen  and  declare  themselves  Christians  ?  "  First 
there  came  two  or  three,  trembling,  and  said  they  were  willing 
to  go  anywhere,  and  to  give  up  all  for  the  blessed  Saviour's  sake. 


290  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Others  were  then  encouraged ;  and  that  day  fifty  stood  forth, 
and  gathered  such  things  as  they  needed,  put  them  into  their 
canoes,  and  away  they  went.  On  that  day,  every  tie  was 
broken  ;  children  were  separated  from  their  parents,  husbands 
from  wives,  brothers  from  sisters,  houses,  land,  and  all  things 
were  left — such  was  the  power  at  work  in  their  minds. 

The  story  of  Metlahkatlah,  its  rapid  growth  into  a 
community  numbering  about  1,000  souls  and  its  ultimate 
transfer  to  a  new  settlement  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States,  is  familiar  to  all  the  readers  of  modern 
missionary  literature.  It  will  suf&ce  for  our  present  pur- 
pose to  say  that  this  mission  was  a  iDotent  influence  in 
preparing  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  the  Gospel 
among  the  native  tribes  of  Alaska. 

Not  less  wonderful  in  its  developments  and  results,  and 
still  more  closely  connected  with  the  beginnings  of  mis- 
sionary work  in  Alaska,  was  the  mission  established  a 
few  years  later  by  the  Wesleyau  Methodist  Church  in 
British  Columbia.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  sixties,  a  pio- 
neer evangelist  of  this' church  conducted  a  series  of  relig- 
ions services  in  Victoria,  which  resulted  in  the  conver- 
sion and  in-gatheriug  of  a  large  number  of  the  native  pop- 
ulation, many  of  whom  belonged  to  the  tribes  of  the  in- 
terior. Within  the  far-reaching  sweep  of  this  wonderful 
work  of  God  were  some  who  had  been  notable  leaders  in 
wickedness,  whose  changed  lives  and  intense  zeal  in 
seeking  the  conversion  of  others  attested  the  jjower  of 
the  Gospel  which  they  professed.  At  the  close  of  these 
services,  the  new  converts  from  the  interior  went  every- 
where, like  the  disciples  of  old,  '^ preaching  the  word," 

One  of  the  converts,  the  chief  of  a  tribe  located  in  the 
vicinity  of  Fort  Simpson,  returned  to  his  people  with  the 
fire  of  Divine  love  burning  in  his  heart,  and  at  once,  in 
connection  with  his  wife,  opened  a  day-school,  which  was 
attended,  ere  long,  by  over  two  hundred  people.     Eelig- 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     291 

ious  services  were  held  also  at  Fort  Simpson,  which,  in 
the  absence  of  a  regular  minister  were  carried  on  by  the 
people  themselves.  When  the  Eev.  Thomas  Crosby  was 
sent  out  to  this  mission  station  by  the  Canadian  church, 
in  the  fall  of  1874,  ^'  he  found  a  glorious  work  of  grace  in 
progress,  and  not  a  single  family  that  had  not  already  re- 
nounced paganism  and  all  were  impatiently  awaiting  his 
arrival  to  be  taught  more  i^erfectly  in  the  new  way." 
Thus  a  whole  tribe  came  under  the  power  of  the  Gospel, 
and,  as  at  Metlahkatlah,  organized  a  Christian  community 
which  year  by  year  advanced  steadily  in  the  direction  of 
a  higher  civilization. 

In  the  spring  of  1876,  a  little  band  of  these  native 
Christians,  eight  in  number,  crossed  the  border  into  Alaska 
in  search  of  employment.  At  Fort  Wrangell,  they  se- 
cured a  government  contract  to  cut  wood.  To  the  sur- 
prise of  the  officers  and  men  at  the  post,  they  declined  to 
work  on  the  Sabbath  :  and,  as  was  their  custom,  met  to- 
gether for  Christian  worship.  In  Captain  S.  P.  Jocelyn, 
of  the  21st  Infantry,  the  commanding  officer  at  the  Fort, 
they  found  a  protector  and  warm  personal  friend.  Thus, 
in  the  wonderful  ordering  of  the  providence  of  God, 
through  these  humble  workmen  who  had  recently  ac- 
cepted the  faith  of  Christ  in  British  Columbia,  and  were 
seeking  for  more  light  without  the  aid  of  any  accredited 
missionary  teacher,  the  Icingdom  of  God  came,  without 
observation,  to  Alaska.  They  were  the  honoured  messen- 
gers to  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  the  privilege  of  pub- 
lishing the  gospel  story  to  the  ignorant  and  degraded 
natives  in  advance  of  all  the  churches  and  missionary 
societies  of  our  land.  Surely  in  the  annals  of  missionary 
work  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles  there  has  been  noth- 
ing more  pathetic  and  significant  than  the  efforts  of  this 
little  band  of  new  converts  to  stimulate  one  another  in 
holding  fast  to  their  profession  of  faith,  and  to  make 


292  SHELDON  JACKSON 

known,  in  so  far  as  they  had  opportunity,  the  way  of  life 
to  those  who,  for  lack  of  this  knowledge,  were  miserably 
perishing  around  them.  In  response  to  their  earnest  re- 
quest, Mr.  Crosby  visited  Fort  Wraugell,  as  the  summer 
season  was  drawing  to  its  close  and  his  labours  among 
them  for  a  brief  season  were  greatly  blessed.  Before  he 
took  his  departure  to  his  own  field  he  persuaded  one  of 
the  wood-cutters,  Philip  McKay,  better  known  among  the 
natives  as  "  Clah,"  to  remain  in  Alaska  during  the  winter 
and  continue  the  religious  services  among  the  natives  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Fort. 

On  his  return  to  Fort  Simpson,  Mr.  Crosby  wrote  to  the 
secretary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  New 
York,  describing  the  condition  of  affairs  and  urging  the 
establishment  of  a  mission  there  at  once.  To  this  request, 
the  response  was  not  favourable  at  the  time,  and  the 
reason  assigned  was  ''  lack  of  funds."  He  next  wrote  to 
the  mission  Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  here 
also  the  disposition  to  help  was  restrained  for  the  same 
reason. 

Meanwhile,  the  native  evangelist,  Clah,  aided  by  one 
of  his  associates  who  remained  in  Alaska,  gave  his  whole 
time  to  Christian  work.  He  opened  a  day-school  in  Oc- 
tober, which  had  an  attendance  of  ninety — many  of  his 
scholars  being  adults — during  the  winter.  Although  not 
so  far  advanced  in  the  rudiments  of  an  English  education 
as  an  average  schoolboy  of  nine  years  of  age  in  the 
United  States,  Clah  made  the  best  of  his  knowledge  as 
j)reacher  and  teacher  and  daily  sought  for  more. 

Better  than  all  other  knowledge,  he  had  the  teaching 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and,  as  a  result,  a  deep  religious  in- 
terest was  awakened  among  the  natives  to  whom  he 
ministered. 

So  great  was  the  change  wrought  in  the  lives  of  some 
who  came  under  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  that  the  citi- 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     293 

zens  aud  soldiers  statioDed  at  Fort  Wrangell  were  aston- 
ished and  deeply  impressed.  As  the  result  of  the  winter's 
work,  forty  of  the  natives  gave  up  their  heathenism  and 
publicly  acknowledged  their  faith  in  Christ,  while  others 
renounced  witchcraft,  devil  dances,  and  the  debasing  serv- 
itude imposed  upon  them  by  the  conjurors  and  medicine- 
men. 

There  were  two  witnesses  to  this  remarkable  movement 
among  the  native  population  in  and  about  Fort  Wran- 
gell who  used  their  influence  in  a  very  effective  way  on 
their  behalf.  One  was  Mr.  John  C.  Mallory,  a  temj)o- 
rary  resident  of  Portland,  Oregon,  who  had  come  to  the 
West  in  search  of  health.  Through  the  influence  of  his 
friend  and  pastor,  Eev.  Dr.  A.  L.  Lindsley,  he  had  se- 
cured a  position  in  some  subordinate  capacity  in  the 
United  Stales  Army  aud  was  sent  to  Alaska  on  special 
duty  by  direction  of  Major -General  Howard.  Mr.  Mallory 
reached  Fort  Wraugell,  in  the  early  spring  of  1877,  but 
was  confiue^l  to  his  bed  with  hemorrhage  of  the  lungs  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  the  month  which  he  spent  at  the  post. 
He  had  seen  enough  and  heard  enough,  however,  duriug 
his  brief  stay,  to  arouse  his  interest  and  quicken  his  zeal 
in  behalf  of  this  needy  people,  who,  without  eflicient 
leadership,  were  struggling  up  towards  the  light  and 
vainly  pleading  for  missionaries  aud  teachers  from  the 
churches  of  their  own  land.  On  his  return  to  Portland, 
which  was  hastened  by  the  critical  condition  of  his  health, 
the  pathetic  story  of  a  waiting  people  aud  a  wide  open 
door  was  told  by  this  dying  man  to  deeply  interested 
hearers.  To  this  call  for  help,  Dr.  Lindsley  and  his 
people  were  eager  to  respond  to  tlie  extent  of  their  ability, 
but  at  this  time  the  only  agency  available  for  succour  Wiis 
the  Foreign  Board,  and  for  the  reason  already  given  no 
grant  was  made  by  it  for  the  work  in  Alaska  and  conse- 
quently no  missionary  was  commissioned  or  sent. 


294  SHELDON  JACKSON 

The  other  witness  to  this  movement  whose  heart  was 
touched  with  pity  for  the  condition  of  these  neglected 
wards  of  the  nation  was  Mr.  J.  S.  Brown,  a  soldier  con- 
nected with  the  post.  Mr.  Brown  was  not  himself  a  pro- 
fessing Christian,  but  was  so  moved  by  what  he  saw 
and  heard  that  he  wrote  a  letter  to  General  Howard,  en- 
treating him  to  use  his  influence  to  persuade  some  church 
or  missionary  society  to  send  a  missionary  to  Fort 
Wrangell. 

The  letter  does  credit  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  Mr. 
Brown,  and  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  this  narrative. 

Dear  Sir  : — I  write  you  in  behalf  of  the  Indians  in  this  section 
of  Alaska,  hoping  that  you  may  be  able  and  willing  to  assist 
these  poor  creatures  in  their  endeavours  to  learn  more  of  the 
good  Saviour,  of  whom  they  have  learned  but  recently. 

About  last  June,  a  party  of  Indians  from  Fort  Simpson,  Brit- 
ish Columbia,  arrived  at  Wrangell  and  instituted  a  series  of 
meetings  for  divine  worship.  The  Stickeens  and  other  tribes 
here  really  know  nothing  about  Christianity.  They  soon  be- 
came interested  in  the  proceedings  of  their  Chrisitian  visitors, 
and  a  few,  after  many  inquiries,  concluded  to  try  the  "  new  life  " 
of  which  they  had  heard.  Since  then,  the  few  have  become  a 
hundred,  and  the  tribe  are  asking  for  a  Christian  teacher,  or 
some  one  to  explain  to  them  more  fully  the  way. 

Rev.  Mr.  Crosby,  of  Fort  Simpson,  came  here  last  fall  and 
did  noble  work  for  a  few  days,  but  his  own  mission  demanded 
his  presence,  and  he  could  only  leave  two  young  men  (Indians) 
of  his  church  to  continue  the  work.  It  has  been  manfully 
carried  on  during  the  winter;  and  could  you,  gentlemen,  be 
present  during  some  of  their  services,  I  know  your  hearts  would 
go  out  to  them  at  the  earnestness  of  their  prayers  and  their  in- 
tense mental  struggles  between  the  prejudices  of  their  tribal 
teachings  and  the  new  doctrines  of  Christianity.  They  are 
])Oor  financially,  and  while  their  country  is  unfitted  for  anything 
like  agriculture,  the  waters  are  rich  in  fish,  and  the  land  full  of 
game  and  heavily  covered  with  timber.  Since  the  advent  of 
traders  and  miners  among  them,  lewdness  and  debauchery  have 
held  high  carnival,  and  the  decimation  of  their  numbers  is  the 
result.     If  a  school  and  mission  were  established  at  Wrangell 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     295 

there  would,  no  doubt,  be  an  Indian  population  of  over  i,ooo 
souls  located  within  reach  of  its  benefits.  And  one  whole- 
souled,  energetic  worker  here  could  sow  seed  that  would  bear 
fruit  from  British  Columbia  to  Bering's  Straits. 

These  Indians  have  patriotic  ideas,  are  proud  to  call  them- 
selves "Boston  Siwaches  "  (United  States  Indians),  and  glory 
in  the  possession  of  a  "  star-spangled  banner."  But  they  feel 
bad  when  they  learn  how  much  better  off  than  themselves  are 
the  Indians  of  British  Columbia.  Schools  and  churches  abound 
among  the  British  Indians,  so  that  nearly  all  of  them  can  read 
and  write,  and  appear  to  better  advantage  than  their  neighbours 
in  Alaska.  This  fact  speaks  much  for  the  Christian  people  of 
Canada,  and  little  for  those  of  our  own  Republic,  who  yearly 
send  so  much  to  convert  the  heathen  in  other  lands,  and  while 
they  allow  our  own  countrymen,  who  certainly  are  just  as  deserv- 
ing, to  go  down  to  the  lowest  hell.  I  am  not  a  church-member, 
but  am  making  this  appeal  for  these  poor  people  from  the  dictates 
of  a  heart  that  I  trust  may  never  be  deaf  to  the  cry  for  help  from 
the  heathen.  Can  you  not,  will  you  not,  make  it  your  busi-'* 
ness  to  build  up  and  foster  this  mission  to  Alaska  ?  A  number 
of  men  could  be  employed  advantageously,  but  one  whole- 
hearted man  could  do  much  and  pave  the  way  for  doing  more. 
Send  out  a  shepherd  who  may  reclaim  a  mighty  flock  from  the 
error  of  their  ways,  and  gather  them  into  the  true  fold,  the 
Master  of  which  said  :  "  Feed  My  sheep."  I  hope  this  letter 
may  be  considered  in  all  charity,  blemishes  excluded. 

And  now,  with  faith  in  the  justice  of  the  cause  for  which  I 
plead  so  feebly,  I  leave  the  matter  in  your  hands,  trusting  that 
a  brighter  day  may  soon  dawn  for  the  poor  benighted  natives 
of  Alaska. 

Yours  sincerely, 

J.  S.  Brown. 


This  letter  was  referred  by  General  Howard  to  Dr. 
Liudsley,  of  Portland,  who  gave  it  into  the  hands  of  the 
Rev.  Howard  Stratton,  the  commissioner  from  the  Pres- 
bj'tery  of  Oregon,  to  the  General  Assembly.  Of  its  fur- 
ther disposition,  and  the  part  it  had  in  the  opening  of 
Alaska  to  the  full  enjoyment  and  privileges  of  a  Chris- 
tian civilization  mention  will  be  made  hereafter. 


296  SHELDON  JACKSON 

*'If  we  knew  more  of  the  Divine  government,"  says  a 
recent  writer,  "we  should  discover  that  the  Supreme 
Being,  taking  account  of  the  condition  of  the  Church  and 
the  world,  and  perceiving,  as  we  do  but  dimly,  the  tend- 
ency of  the  currents  of  thought  moving  among  men, 
foresees  that  there  will  be  need  of  some  special  message 
being  proclaimed,  and  especially  commissions  a  messen- 
ger, whom  he  prepares  and  equips  for  the  task  of  de- 
livering it,"  So  in  this  hour  of  emergency,  and  in  answer 
to  this  pathetic  appeal,  ' '  there  was  a  man  sent  from 
^od"  whose  name  was — Sheldon  Jackson.  Henceforth, 
although  he  knew  it  not  then,  the  rest  of  his  active  life 
was  to  be  devoted  to  the  education  and  evangelization  of 
the  people  of  this  far-away  northland.  Like  Philip  in 
^Samaria,  he  was  engaged  in  a  great  work,  which  seemed 
to  demand  all  his  energies  and  time,  when  an  unexpected 
call  came  to  leave  it  for  a  brief  season,  in  order  to  make 
a  special  tour  outside  of  his  prescribed  field  of  labour. 
Like  Philip,  also,  he  knew  not  the  real  object  of  this 
journey  until  in  unquestioning  obedience  to  the  ordering 
of  Providence  he  was  far  on  his  way.  The  first  intima- 
tion of  the  purpose  of  the  officials  of  the  Home  Board, 
through  whom  this  call  to  go  northward  came,  was 
given  in  a  letter  from  the  senior  secretary,  Dr.  Ken- 
dall, under  date  of  April  19,  1877.  In  substance, 
his  instructions  were  to  make  a  tour  of  exploration 
in  Montana,  in  order  that  he  might  become  better  ac- 
quainted with  its  principal  cities  and  strategic  points, 
and  that  in  so  far  as  possible  he  might  supply  such  fields 
as  were  destitute  of  gospel  privileges,  pending  the  ar- 
rival of  men  who  should  be  commissioned  to  take  charge 
of  them.  The  time  allotted  for  this  service  was  about 
three  months.  At  or  near  the  end  of  this  period,  he  was 
directed  to  go  to  Boise  City,  in  Idaho  Territory,  and 
thence  northward  to  "Walla  Walla,  in  Oregon  Territory. 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     297 

Eeturniug  from  this  point,  he  was  requested,  if  the  wiiy 
should  be  clear,  to  make  a  thorough  exploration  of  the 
whole  field  north  of  the  Pacific  Eailroad  to  the  California 
and  Oregon  lines.  This  tour,  as  originally  laid  out,  in- 
cluded territory  belonging  to  the  superintendents  of  other 
fields,  but  the  Board  took  the  responsibility  of  making 
this  special  investigation,  mainly  for  the  reason  that 
these  sections  were  practically  beyond  the  reach  of  those 
who  were  appointed  to  care  for  them.  At  the  close  of 
this  letter  of  instruction,  Dr.  Kendall  says  : — 

"  You  will  be  glad  to  know  that  the  financial  outlook 
is  more  encouraging  than  we  expected,  and  that  we 
stand  ready  to  send  the  right  men  to  all  the  important 
points  now  open  from  the  Missouri  Elver  to  the  Pacific 
coast." 

In  a  foot-note  to  this  communication,  Dr.  Jackson 
adds:  "The  above  letter  resulted  in  the  opening  of 
Alaska  to  gospel  work." 

This  is  literally  true  as  to  the  result,  but  it  was  due  to 
a  series  of  overruling  providences  which,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, eliminated  Montana  from  the  proposed  tour  of  ex- 
ploration, and  afterwards  diverted  the  course  of  the  jour- 
ney, as  originally  outlined,  from  Eastern  Oregon  and 
Washington  Territories  to  Portland  and  Alaska.  In 
the  letter  itself  there  is  no  intimation  of  a  visit  to  Ahiska  : 
and  in  the  mind  of  the  writer  there  was  no  thought  of  in- 
cluding it  in  this  northward  tour. 

During  the  sessions  of  the  General  Assembly,  which 
was  convened  at  Chicago,  on  the  17th  of  May,  Mr.  Strat- 
ton,  the  commissioner  from  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon, 
gave  Mr.  Brown's  letter  into  the  hands  of  Sheldon  Jack- 
sou  to  make  such  use  of  it  as  he  deemed  best.  Deeply 
touched  with  the  pathetic  appeal  of  its  writer,  he  pub- 
lished it  at  once  in  the  Chicago  DaiJi/  Tribune  and  soon 
after  in  the  leading  organs  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 


298  SHELDON  JACKSON 

througlioiit  the  country.  The  original  letter  he  for- 
warded to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  with  the  request 
that  a  suitable  man  be  commissioned  as  soon  as  possible 
for  this  long-neglected  field.  By  a  remarkable  conjunc- 
tion of  unforeseen  events,  the  General  Assembly  had  pre- 
pared the  way  at  one  of  its  sessions  for  the  granting  of 
this  request  by  authorizing  the  Home  Board  to  establish 
schools  and  support  missionary  teachers  under  certain 
circumstances,  among  the  aboriginal  or  exceptional  pop- 
ulation of  the  country.  This  action  was  somewhat  am- 
biguous in  expression,  and  was  in  advance  of  any  move- 
ment looking  to  the  evangelization  of  the  natives  of 
Alaska  ;  but  the  Board  acted  upon  the  presumption  that 
it  covered  the  needs  of  this  far-away  northland,  and  at 
the  first  regular  meeting  after  Dr.  Jackson's  letter  was 
received,  apx)ointed  the  Eev.  Francis  Eobinsou  as  their 
missionary  to  the  post  at  Fort  "Wrangell.  This  action 
Was  taken  in  June,  but  before  the  commission  reached 
him,  Mr.  Eobinsou  had  accepted  a  call  to  a  church  in 
California. 

While  at  the  assembly  definite  instructions  relating  to 
the  special  mission  northward,  suggested  by  Dr.  Kendall 
in  the  letter  above  mentioned,  were  given  to  Dr.  Jackson. 
In  the  plan  of  the  journey,  as  originally  outlined,  Mon- 
tana was  included.  In  the  later  plan  it  was  omitted  for 
lack  of  time,  and  Idaho  was  designated  as  the  first  terri- 
tory to  be  visited.  The  start  for  this  momentous  journey 
was  made  from  Denver  about  the  1st  of  July.  The  first 
stage,  by  rail,  was  over  familiar  ground  to  Kelton,  Ne- 
vada. From  this  point,  Dr.  Jackson  diverged  north- 
ward, taking  the  stage-coach  for  Walla  Walla,  in  the  ter- 
ritory of  Oregon,  500  miles  distant.  On  the  evening  of 
the  third  day  of  continuous  staging,  he  reached  Bois6 
City,  Idaho,  and  carefully  looked  over  the  ground  with 
a  view  to  the  establishment  of  a  Presbyterian  church. 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO    299 

On  Sabbath,  the  15th  of  July,  he  preached  in  the  Method- 
ist church.  This  was  said  to  be  the  first  sermon  preached 
by  any  Presbyterian  minister  in  this  region.  The  follow- 
ing day  several  families  of  Presbyterians  and  some  of 
other  denominations,  who  were  willing  to  cast  in  their  lot 
with  them,  were  visited  and  arrangements  made  for  se- 
curing a  minister.  Through  Dr.  Lindsley,  chairman  of 
the  Home  Mission  Committee  of  the  Synod  of  Columbia, 
to  whom  Dr.  Jackson  rei^orted  the  situation,  a  mission- 
ary was  promiitly  sent  to  occupy  this  point  and  preach 
in  the  neighbouring  villages.  Boise  at  this  time  had  a 
poi)ulation  of  about  2,000.  It  was  then,  as  now,  the 
capital  of  the  territory,  and  was  prospectively  the  most 
important  point  within  its  limits.  On  Monday  evening, 
the  16th  of  July,  Dr.  Jackson  resumed  his  journey  by 
stage.  His  companions  on  this  section  of  the  journey 
were  a  scrofulous  Chinaman  and  a  gambler,  far  gone  in 
consumption.  During  the  night  the  gambler  had  a  severe 
hemorrhage,  and  for  a  time  seemed  to  be  at  the  point  of 
death. 

While  crossing  the  Blue  Mountains  of  Oregon  the  air 
was  so  cool  that  it  was  necessary  to  wear  a  winter  over- 
coat. The  same  night  he  lay  "with  his  head  in  an  open 
window,  at  Walla  Walla,  panting  for  breath,  with  the 
thermometer  at  108°  after  sundown." 

At  this  point,  Dr.  Jackson  found  the  whole  region  of  his 
prospective  labours  in  commotion,  by  reason  of  a  revolt 
among  the  Nez  Perces  Indians,  under  the  able  leadership 
of  Chief  Joseph.  The  revolt  had  already  culminated  in 
oiieu  warfare,  the  troops  had  been  called  into  active  serv- 
ice, and  settlers  in  all  the  exposed  sections  were  fleeing 
from  their  homos  to  fortified  posts  or  other  jjlaces  of  safety. 
Under  such  conditions,  mission  work  in  the  places  to 
which  he  was  minded  to  go,  was  well-nigh  an  impossi- 
bility. 


300  SHELDON  JACKSON 

In  the  face  of  this  providential  interdict,  Sheldon  Jack- 
son took  counsel  with  the  promptings  of  his  own  desires 
and  judgments  as  to  the  next  step,  and  promptly  decided 
to  go  t(^  Portland  for  a  conference  with  Dr.  Lindsley,  and 
thence,  if  the  way  should  be  clear,  to  Alaska.  In  a 
description  of  this  journey,  he  says  :  ''  On  my  long  stage 
trips,  while  establishing  churches  throughout  the  Eocky 
Mountain  territories,  I  had  often  thought  of  that  distant 
section  of  our  country,  and  the  vague  hope  would  some- 
times cross  my  mind  that  I  myself  might  yet  be  permitted 
to  go  there."  In  the  wonder-workings  of  God's  provi- 
dence this  vague  hope  had  now  grown  into  an  intense  de- 
sire, and  he  eagerly  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to 
follow  the  leadings  of  Providence,  which  seemed  to  point 
in  that  direction.  "My  trip,  as  far  as  Walla  Walla,"  he 
writes,  "  was  in  obedience  to  the  direct  instructions  of  the 
missionary  secretary,  concerning  which  I  had  no  discre- 
tion. From  Walla  Walla  to  Portland,  the  trip  was  dis- 
cretionary, and  the  secretary  expected  me  to  take  it. 
From  Portland  to  Alaska  the  trip  was  finally  taken  upon 
my  own  judgment,  and  at  the  earnest  request  of  Dr. 
Lindsley  and  others  interested  in  Alaska."  At  Portland, 
he  found  Mrs.  A.  E.  McFarlaud,  a  missionary  friend  who 
with  her  husband  had  rendered  faithful  service  for  sev- 
eral years  at  Santa  Fe,  the  first  mission  established 
by  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  territory  of  K^ew 
Mexico. 

Mrs.  McFarland,  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  about 
a  year  previous  to  this  visit,  had  removed  to  Portland, 
and  was  anxiously  awaiting  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Jackson,  to 
consult  with  him  with  regard  to  future  work.  The  recent 
tidings  from  Alaska,  which  had  moved  the  little  circle  at 
Portland  so  deeply,  had  already  awakened  within  her 
responsive  heart  the  desire  to  go  there,  if  the  way  should 
open  :  and  it  was  soon  determined  that  she  should  ac- 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     301 

company  Dr.  JacksoD  to  Alaska,  witli  the  view  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  Christian  school,  as  the  nucleus  of  a 
larger  and  more  fully-equipped  mission.  ^ 

The  faithful  messenger  who  was  thus  waiting  for  orders 
at  the  gateway  of  this  new  possession  of  the  United  States 
was  well  aware  of  the  hardships  and  perils  and  self-de- 
nials which  this  call  to  duty  involved.  In  the  early  days 
of  Western  emigration  she  crossed  the  plains,  from  the 
Missouri  River  to  Santa  Fe,  in  a  stage-coach  several 
times.  On  one  occasion,  she  was  the  only  w^oman  in  the 
coach  for  twelve  days  and  nights,  and  a  portion  of  the 
way  they  were  pursued  by  the  hostile  Indians  of  the 
plains.  She  had  also  had  a  brief  experience  of  mission- 
ary life  among  the  Nez  Perces,  before  the  death  of  her 
husband. 

Thus  through  many  trials  and  unusual  experiences 
of  hardships  and  dangers,  Mrs.  McFarlaud  was  emi- 
nently qualified  for  the  work  which  she  joyfully  accepted 
as  the  answer  to  her  inquiries  at  the  Throne  of  Grace. 
From  Dr.  Jackson,  Mrs.  McFarlaud,  and  her  friends  in 
Portland,  learned  for  the  first  time  that  the  Home  Board, 
basing  its  action  upon  the  encouragement  given  by  the 
last  assembly,  had  decided  to  open  a  mission  in  Alaska. 
Thus  the  last  barrier  to  the  occupation  of  the  land  by 
these  advance  agents  of  the  Church,  going  at  their  own 
charges  and  on  their  own  responsibility,  was  removed.    - 

"So  to  Alaska,"  as  one  has  put  it,  "the  journey  was 
made,  and  at  Fort  Wrangell  Mrs.  McFarlaud,  the  only 
Christian  white  woman  in  the  country,  with  an  Indian 
woman  as  interpreter,  with  twenty-seven  books,  no 
schoolhouse,  and  the  probability  of  a  boat  'from  below' 
(tlie  States)  once  a  month,  began  Christ's  work  in  Alaska. 
She  became  nurse,  doctor,  undertaker,  preacher,  teacher, 
practically  mayor  and  administrator  generally,  for  all 
came  to  her,  and,  burdened  almost  beyond  endurance,  she 


302  SHELDON  JACKSON 

kept  writing  for  a  helper,  for  a  magistrate  of  some  sort, 
or  an  ordained  minister.  Tribes  around  began  to  hear  of 
her  and  came  for  help.  One  old  Indian  of  a  distant  tribe 
came  and  said :  '  Me  much  sick  at  heart,  my  people  all 
dark  heart,  nobody  tell  them  that  Jesus  died.  By  and 
by,  my  people  all  die  and  go  down — dark,  dark.'  All 
honour  and  remembrance  to  that  noble  woman  who  braved 
the  loneliness  and  the  dangers,  bearing  unfurled  the  ban- 
ner of  the  cross!"  ' 

Dr.  Jackson  and  Mrs.  McFarlaud  reached  Fort  Wrau- 
gell  on  the  10th  of  August,  1877,  and  received  a  warm 
welcome  from  the  native  Christians,  who  gladly  turned 
over  the  work  they  had  commenced  into  their  hands. 
The  woman  who  afterwards  served  Mrs.  McFarland  as  an 
interpreter,  was  gathering  her  winter  supply  of  berries  a 
hundred  miles  up  the  Stickeen  Eiver,  when  the  news 
reached  her  that  the  missionaries  had  come. 

Eegarding  the  interests  which  they  represented  as  first 
in  importance,  she  at  once  placed  her  children,  bedding, 
and  provisions  in  her  canoe  and  paddled  home  against 
heavy  head- winds  to  give  the  strangers  a  welcome,  and 
to  offer  such  help  as  she  was  able  to  give.  Says  Dr. 
Jackson  : — ^'  Upon  landing  at  Wraugell  and  passing  down 
the  street,  I  saw  an  Indian  ringing  a  bell.  It  was  the 
call  for  the  afternoon  school.  About  twenty  pupils  were 
in  attendance,  mostly  young  Indian  women.  Two  or 
three  boys  were  present ;  also  a  mother  and  her  three ' 
little  children.  As  the  women  took  their  seats  on  the 
rough  plank  benches,  each  one  bowed  her  head  in  silent 
prayer,  seeking  Divine  help  on  her  studies.  Soon  a 
thoughtful  Indian  man,  of  about  thirty  years  of  age,  came 
in  and  took  his  seat  behind  the  rude  desk.  It  was  Clah, 
the    teacher.     The   familiar   hymn,  'What  a  friend  we 

^  "  Over  Sea  aud  Laud,"  M.  K.  Bennett. 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     303 

liave  iu  Jesus,'  was  sung  in  English ;  a  prayer  followed 
in  the  Chinook  jargon,  closing  with  the  rex^etition  in 
concert  of  the  Lord's  prayer  in  English.  After  lessons 
were  studied  and  recited,  the  school  arose,  sang  the  long- 
metre  doxology  and  recited  in  concert  the  benediction. 
Then  the  teacher  said  :  *  Good-afternoon,  my  pupils  j ' 
to  which  came  the  kindly  response,  '  Good-afternoon, 
teacher.'  As  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  more  lately 
iu  Old  Mexico,  so  here,  God  had  opened  the  way,  albeit 
under  great  difiiculties,  in  advance  of  the  coming  of  the 
usual  missionary  api^liances."' 

On  the  28th  of  August,  Mrs.  McFarland  took  charge  of 
the  school.  On  the  opening  day  there  were  thirty  pupils, 
including  Philip  (Clah)  and  the  Tongas  woman  who  was 
assisting  as  interpreter.  For  a  time  the  forenoon  of  the 
school -days  was  occupied  with  the  ordinary  elementary 
branches  of  English  studies.  In  the  afternoon  school 
Philip  taught  and  ijreached  in  the  Tsimpsean  dialect, 
which  was  rendered  into  the  SLickeen  language  by  the 
interpreter.  As  soon  as  Dr.  Jackson  had  completed  his 
arrangements  for  the  continuation  of  the  mission,  he  left 
Mrs.  McFarland  in  charge  and  returned  to  his  own  field 
of  labour  in  the  Synod  of  Colorado. 

A  short  time  before  the  arrival  of  tliis  courageous 
Christian  woman,  who  was  thus  left  alone  in  a  community 
where  there  were  but  few  white  men  and  upwards  of  one 
thousand  Indians,  the  military  force  which  hitherto  occu- 
pied the  Fort  had  been  withdrawn.  Tliis  was  tlie  only 
recognized  authority  within  the  limits  of  the  land :  and 
apart  from  its  influence  there  was  no  semblance  of  law, 
order,  or  govornment.  As  in  the  later  period  of  the 
Judges  in  Israel,  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in 
his  own  eyes. 

Says  Julia  McNair  \Yright : — 

'  "Alaska,"  by  Sbeldou  Jacksou,  p.  142. 


304  SHELDON  JACKSON 

We  can  dimly  imagine  some  of  her  feelings  when  she  saw  the 
vessel  carrying  Dr.  Jackson  away,  on  his  return  trip,  and  his, 
as  he  left  her  to  her  fortune.  Probably  the  Church  in  the 
United  States  has  never  had  a  greater  surprise  than  when  it 
heard  that  work  in  Alaska  was  fanly  begun,  and  that  a  culti- 
vated Presbyterian  lady  was  left  there  to  begin  it. 

"  What !  "  was  the  cry  that  assailed  Dr.  Jackson  ;  "  did  you 
leave  Mrs,  McFarland  up  there  alone,  among  all  those  heathen 
— up  there  in  the  cold,  on  the  edge  of  winter  ?  "  "  Yes,"  was 
the  reply,  "I  did;  and  she  has  neither  books,  nor  school- 
house,  nor  helpers,  nor  money,  nor  friends — only  a  few  con- 
verted but  morally  uninstructed  Indians,  and  a  great  many 
heathen  about  her.  Now,  what  will  you  do  for  her?"  To 
this,  the  writer  truthfully  adds:  "  The  situation  awakened  an 
enthusiasm  that  has  had  few  parallels  in  modern  church  work."^ 

When  Dr.  Jackson  returned  to  bis  home  and  reported 
what  he  had  done  in  this  informal  fashion  for  Alaska, 
there  were  ominous  indications  of  disapproval  in  some 
quarters,  but  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  gave  consent 
to  the  continuance  of  the  work  as  already  begun,  with  the 
understanding  that  no  funds  were  available  for  this  field 
from  the  general  fund.  Nothing  deterred  by  this,  Shel- 
don Jackson  at  once  undertook  to  secure  a  special  fund 
for  the  beginning  and  extension  of  the  work.  His  appeal, 
as  in  emergencies  on  previous  occasions,  was  mainly  to 
the  women  of  the  Church,  who  were  now  organized  in 
many  of  the  synods  for  aggressive  work.  His  public  ad- 
dresses in  cities  and  villages  ;  at  general  assemblies, 
synods  and  xjresbyteries ;  at  missionary  and  educational 
conventions,  together  with  stirring  appeals  and  deeply 
interesting  letters  from  Mrs.  McFarland  in  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Presbyterian, — resulted  in  securing,  between 
October,  1877,  and  December,  1^79,  a  fund,  aggregating 
over  $12,000.  From  the  very  beginning  of  her  work, 
Mrs.  McFarland  pleaded  earnestly  for  a  "Home-school" 

1"  Among  the  Alaskans,"  p.  116. 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO    305 

iu  which  she  could  give  protection  aud  shelter  for  the 
orphan  aud  defenseless  girls  whom  she  had  undertaken 
to  instruct  aud  befriend. 

**  This  need,"  says  Mrs.  Wright,  "  became  more  and  more  evi- 
dent. As  soon  as  Mrs.  McFarland's  instructions  had  secured 
the  personal  improvement  of  the  young  girls,  making  them 
bright  in  manner  and  tidy  in  dress  and  person,  their  superior 
appearance  attracted  the  attention  of  scoundrels  who  at  once 
tried  to  buy  them  of  their  heathen  parents,  and  thus,  again  and 
again,  promising  pupils  were  carried  off  for  lives  of  vice  and 
misery.  But  now  two  of  these  girls  disappeared  from  the 
school,  and  word  was  brought  Mrs.  McFarland  that  they  had 
been  accused  of  witchcraft  and  were  being  tortured.  In  agony 
of  mind,  she  set  out  to  release  them.  The  school  implored  her 
not  to  go  !  '  They  are  having  a  devil  dance,  and  will  kill 
you.'  Shustaks,  a  wicked  chief  of  the  heathen  element,  had 
threatened  her  life,  and  would  now  take  it.  Sarah  Dickinson, 
the  interpreter,  threw  her  arms  around  her,  and,  weeping,  de- 
clared she  was  going  to  her  death. 

"  The  converted  Indians,  at  other  times  so  bold,  shrank  from 
intermeddling  with  the  madness  of  a  devil-dance,  and  warned 
her  to  desist  from  a  hopeless  errand  ;  but  up  to  the  beach  alone 
hurried  that  Christian  teacher  to  where  her  two  poor  girls  were 
bound  hand  and  foot,  stripped  naked,  in  the  centre  of  fifty 
dancing  and  frantic  fiends,  who  with  yells  cut  the  victims  with 
knives  and  tore  out  pieces  of  their  flesh.  Forcing  her  way  to 
the  side  of  the  captives,  in  spite  of  threats  and  execrations, 
Mrs.  McFarland  stood  warning  and  pleading,  and  threatening 
them  with  the  wrath  of  the  United  States  ;  and  after  hours  of 
dauntless  persistency  cowed  the  wretches  and  took  off  the  half- 
dead  girls.  During  the  night  one  of  them  was  recaptured  and 
killed." 

To  rescue  helpless  young  women  from  such  atrocities,  a 
home  was  provided  through  the  joint  efforts  of  Dr.  Jack- 
son and  the  writer  of  the  above,  Mrs.  Julia  McNair 
Wright. 

The  funds  secured  for  this  purpose  were  the  larger  part 
of  the  special  fund  of  $12,000,  which  was  collected  prior 


306  SHELDON  JACKSON 

to  December,  1879.  That  which  remained  over  was  used 
to  pay  the  salaries  of  the  missionaries,  the  number  of 
whom  had  been  increased  up  to  this  date  to  five.  The 
first  minister  commissioned  for  this  field  was  John  G. 
Brady.  He  reached  Fort  Wrangell  in  the  spring  of  1878, 
where  he  remained  a  month,  celebrated  the  first  Christian 
marriage  among  the  Alaskans,  and  then  passed  on  to 
establish  a  second  mission  at  Sitka.  In  the  spring  of 
1880,  Mr.  Brady  severed  his  connection  with  the  mission. 

In  after  years,  he  filled  imx)ortant  ofdces  of  trust  in  the 
affairs  of  government  in  Alaska,  and  rendered  efficient 
service  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  the  Church  as  governor 
of  the  territory,  during  three  terms  dating  from  June  16, 
1897,  to  May  1,  1906.  In  him  the  advocates  of  law, 
order,  and  fair  dealing,  and  the  missionary  and  educa- 
tional forces  of  the  country,  had  a  staunch  supporter  and 
a  warm,  influential  friend.' 

A  few  months  before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Brady  at  Wran- 
gell, the  native  evangelist,  Clah,  had  a  severe  hemorrhage 
of  the  lungs,  and  soon  after  was  called  to  the  reward  of 
the  faithful  in  the  "better  country." 

The  records  of  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska  give  the  fol- 

'  At  a  later  date,  November,  1903,  Dr.  Jackson  bears  this  testimony 
to  Mr.  Brady's  loyalty  to  the  missionary  cause  and  the  efficient  service 
which  he  rendered  it  in  other  departments  of  labour  and  influence  : — 

"At  this  time  Mr.  Brady  has  a  commanding  influence  for  good  in 
Alaska,  both  among  the  natives  and  among  the  better  class  of  whites. 
There  is  no  man  in  Alaska  the  natives  of  Southeastern  Alaska  would 
so  soon  go  to  when  in  trouble  or  in  need  of  advice.  He  has  for  all  the 
past  years  kept  the  church  at  Sitka,  for  the  whites,  in  existence.  He 
was  made  United  States  Commissioner  under  President  Arthur  and 
was  continued  by  President  Cleveland  during  three  years  of  his  term. 
He  was  appointed  governor  by  President  McKinley  and  was  continued 
by  President  Roosevelt ;  and  both  in  private  and  public  life  has  for 
over  a  quarter  of  a  century  done  missionary  work  at  his  own  expense 
in  Alaska." 


OUTSIDE  THE  SYNOD  OF  COLORADO     307 

lowing  accessions  to  the  missionary  force  prior  to  Janu- 
ary 1,  1880  :— 

Miss  Fannie  Kellogg,  missionary  teacher,  opened  school  at 
Sitka,  April  17,  1878;  Rev.  S.  H.  Young  arrived  at  Wrangell 
and  took,  charge  of  mission  August  8,  1878  ;  Rev.  W.  R.  Cor- 
Hes,  medical  missionary  and  general  assistant,  who  with  his 
family  served  without  expense  to  the  Board  at  Wrangell  for 
about  three  years  from  June  23,  1879 ;  Miss  Maggie  J.  Dunbar, 
missionary  teacher,  arrived  at  Fort  Wrangell,  July  14,  1879. 


XIV 

A  SUMMER  VACATION  AND  ITS  OUTCOME 

"Until  Sheldon  Jackson's  voice  roused  the  Church,  the  interest 
taken  in  this  far-off  region  (Alaska)  and  its  people  was  but  slight.  He 
laboured  incessantly  among  the  churches  and  through  the  press,  until 
he  awakened  that  missionary  zeal  for  Alaska  which  has  given  us  the 
churches  and  schools  we  now  have  there." — Dr.  Robert  W.  Hill,  Su- 
perintendent of  the  Synod  of  Columbia,  1882. 

THE  successful  inauguration  of  missionary  work 
in  Alaska,  in  so  brief  a  space  of  time,  was  not 
accomplished  without  serious  opposition.  On 
the  mission  field  there  were  some  who  regarded  this  move- 
ment as  detracting  from  the  work  already  established  in 
the  Western  territories ;  and  from  their  standpoint 
severely  criticised  Dr.  Jackson  for  travelling  beyond  the 
bounds  of  his  own  synodical  territory.  One  of  his 
warmest  friends  who  was  then,  and  is  now,  a  leader 
among  the  missionary  forces  of  the  West,  wrote,  under 
date  of  February  14,  1879  :— 

I  am  very  sorry,  Doctor,  that  you  are  diverting  attention 
from  all  this  necessary  and  important  work  in  the  territories 
(Alaslca  was  not  even  recognized  as  a  territory  at  that  time)  by 
any  further  discussion  of  Alaska.  I  am  thoroughly  convinced 
that  it  is  amiss  to  make  that  enterprise  permanent. 
If  all  the  people  in  Alaska  were  Christians,  they  wouldn't  be 
worth  so  much  to  the  country  and  the  world  as  07ie  live  Chris- 
tian in  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Utah,  or  Idaho.  We  need  new 
missionaries  and  more  teachers.  Where's  the  reason  for  sink- 
ing money  in  Alaska  when  so  many  points,  important  fields 
right  in  the  heart  of  the  country  are  ittisjcpplied  2 

308 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  309 

In  the  Church  at  this  time  there  was  another  element 
which  strenuously  opposed  any  movement  which  favoured 
the  evangelization  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  country 
through  the  agency  of  the  Home  Board,  and  in  keeping 
with  this  position  antagonized  the  effort  which  was  being 
made  to  organize  Presbyterian  women  for  the  purpose  of 
aiding  in  this  work.  A  noted  leader  in  this  opposition 
was  Dr.  Wm.  C.  Gray  of  The  Interior.  Eegarding  "Jack- 
son" as  the  head  and  front  of  both  movements,  he  criticised 
his  efforts  along  these  lines  unsparingly.  He  described 
his  long  journeys  in  search  of  new  fields  of  labour  as  the 
"cauterings"  of  the  ''wild  horsemen  of  the  Eockies  " 
and  allowed  his  riotous  imagination  to  picture  the  clouds 
of  dust,  which  followed  him  in  his  swift  course  from  the 
Arctic  circle  to  the  Mexican  Gulf.  Eeferring  to  this  op- 
position, in  a  letter  to  the  clerk  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Oregon,  under  date  of  July  12,  1878,  Dr.  Jackson  says  : — 

The  treasurer  of  the  Home  Board  writes  that  they  have  re- 
ceived as  the  result  of  my  letters  and  addresses,  large  contribu- 
tions, aggregating  thousands  of  dollars  as  specials  to  Alaska. 
One  person  sent  in  a  check  for  six  hundred  dollars.  This  cor- 
dial response  from  the  Church  gave  the  Secretaries  encourage- 
ment to  enter  upon  the  work  in  Alaska ;  and  but  for  that 
encouragement  they  would  not  have  taken  up  this  work :  for 
you  are  probal)ly  aware  that  there  is  a  large  minority  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  led  by  The  Interior  of  Chicago,  who  are 
opposed  to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  having  anything  to  do 
with  schools,  or  Indians.  And  this  minority  has  made  itself 
felt  in  the  office  of  the  Home  Board  in  New  York  City.  Be- 
cause I  have  such  missions  under  my  care  and  press  them  vig- 
orously on  the  Church  he  has  seen  fit  to  make  violent  attacks  on 
me  and  ray  work.  The  sins  of  the  "  canterings  "  consist  in  the 
fact  that  the  Alaska  Indians  were  at  one  end  of  the  trip.  He 
will  oppose  anything  in  that  line  that  your  presbytery  will  do. 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life.  Dr.  Gray  had  another 
vision  of  the  man  and  his  work  and  became  one  of  his 


310  SHELDON  JACKSON 

warmest  friends  and  most  enthusiastic  supporters.  After 
his  election  to  the  highest  post  of  honour  in  the  gift  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  the  editor  of  The  Interior  wrote,  un- 
der date  of  May  27,  1897  :— 

It  would  be  a  poor  showing  if  a  man  of  Dr.  Jackson's  record 
could  not  now,  after  forty  years  of  the  most  distinguished  service 
of  any  American  missionary,  with  the  solitary  exception  (if  ex- 
ception it  be)  of  Marcus  Whitman,  receive  recognition.  .  . 
Dr.  Jackson  is  the  most  guileless  man  I  ever  knew.  With  a  fond- 
ness for  humour,  which  is  probably  excessive  in  me,  I  used,  a 
score  of  years  ago,  to  find  food  for  good-natured  satire  in  the 
little  missionary,  Sheldon  Jackson,  who  had  charge  of  the  whole 
country  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  British  Columbia,  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River.  I  used  to  call  him  the  missionary  mustang  of 
the  Rockies,  and  depict  the  clouds  of  dust  which  followed  his 
swift  career  between  the  tropics  and  the  arctics.  Almost  any 
other  man  would  have  taken  it  seriously  and  become  my  mortal 
enemy  ;  not  so  Jackson.  Some  of  his  near  friends  were  angry 
about  it,  but  he  only  laughed  at  it.  He  has,  as  I  now  know,  a 
quiet  revenge ;  he  says  he  has  clipped  all  these  descriptions  out 
and  pasted  them  in  a  scrap-book,  as  part  of  the  history  of  West- 
ern missionaries.  If  these  descriptions  should  ever  get  into  that 
history,  the  laugh  would  be  longest  and  loudest — not  at  Jack- 
son, but  at  myself. 

As  a  result  of  the  pressure  brought  upon  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  in  the  period  of  which  we  write,  the  fol- 
lowing notification  was  addressed  to  Dr.  Jackson  from  the 
office  in  New  York,  February  3,  1879  :— 

At  the  regular  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  held 
January  28,  1879,  the  action  following  was  adopted  :  — 

Resolved, — That  it  is  the  judgment  of  this  Board  that  the 
interests  of  home  missions  would  be  best  subserved  by  Dr.  Jack- 
son, by  his  remaining  upon  his  widely  extended  and  destitute 
field, — unless  when  called  away  by  the  special  appointment  of 
the  Board. 

(Signed)  O.  E.  Boyd,  Recording  Secretary. 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  311 

Now  it  so  happened  that  at  the  very  time  this  deliver- 
ance was  made,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  planning  to  make 
another  trip  to  Alaska,  in  the  interests  of  the  work  to 
which  he  was  committed,  and  was  also  desirous  of  ob- 
taining a  vacation — a  rare  privilege,  which  he  had  never 
asked  before — for  that  purpose.  In  his  reply  to  the 
above  notification,  which  was  virtually  a  reflection  upon 
his  course  of  action,  he  gave  a  threefold  reason  for  his 
eastward  trips,  and,  with  a  naivete  that  is  certainly  re- 
markable, in  view  of  the  circumstances,  presented  his 
plea  for  a  two  months'  leave  of  absence,  with  the  very 
purpose  in  view  for  which  he  had  been  tacitly  reproved. 
Not  only  this,  but  he  asks  that  one  or  more  representa- 
tives of  the  Board  should  accompany  him  to  Alaska,  a  far 
cry  beyond  his  widely-extended  field,  in  order  to  get  an 
intelligent  conception  of  the  work  and  its  relative  im- 
portance. Not  less  remarkable  than  the  plea  was  the 
reply  made  by  the  Board  which  reversed  its  former 
action  and  practically  granted  all  that  he  asked  of  it. 

His  own  explanation  is  given  in  a  foot-note  to  this  cor- 
respondence : — 


Memorandum. — In  1879,  there  were  two  parties  in  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  ;  the  conservative,  holding  to  the  old  methods 
and  looking  with  suspicion  upon  the  new  movement  (Woman's 
Executive  Committee)  of  women ;  and  the  progressive,  who 
were  in  favour  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  and  be- 
lieved in  keeping  the  missionaries  among  the  churches  for  the 
purpose  of  disseminating  information. 

When  the  above  action  was  taken  the  conservatives  were  in 
the  majority. 

A  few  months  later,  the  majority  was  reversed,  and  I  was  re- 
quested to  address  Eastern  churches. 

(Signed)  Sheldon  Iackson. 

Tlie  official  action  alluded  to  is  as  follows  : — 


312  SHELDON  JACKSON 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Hoaie  Missions  in  New  York, 
February  25,  1879,  a  communication  was  received  from  Rev. 
Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  explaining  the  action  referred  to  in 
the  resolution  adopted  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Board  ;  where- 
upon it  was  on  motion, 

Resolved, — That  the  Board  accept  Dr.  Jackson's  explanation 
as  satisfactory. 


A  vacation  of  two  months  was  granted  Rev.  Sheldon  Jack- 
son, D.  D. 

(Signed)  O.  E.  Boyd,  Recording  Secretary. 


Another  phase  of  opposition  to  Dr.  Jackson,  in  the  early- 
development  of  the  work  in  Alaska,  grew  ont  of  a  con- 
tested claim  with  respect  to  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 

For  some  time  before  and  after  the  founding  of  the 
mission  at  Fort  Wrangell  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon,  re- 
garding the  territory  of  Alaska  as  a  part  of  the  Synod  of 
Columbia,  assumed  the  right  to  supervise  and  exercise 
control  over  the  missionary  woirk  within  its  limits.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  this  active  emissary  of  the 
Church  at  large,  who  had  entered  Alaska  at  a  time  when 
failure  had  been  written  upon  every  attempt  to  give  the 
Gospel  to  its  native  population,  and  who  was  not  in  any 
way  amenable  to  the  direction  or  control  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Oregon,  could  hardly  have  shaped  his  course  so  as 
to  avoid  controversy  or  escajje  adverse  criticism.  Had 
he  turned  over  the  new  mission,  which  he  had  established 
in  the  name  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  into  the  hands  of 
Dr.  Lindsley  and  his  associates  in  the  Oregon  Presbytery 
and  followed  this  with  a  withdrawal  from  the  field,  the 
contention  as  to  jurisdiction  would  have  ended  at  once. 
But  where  was  the  man  among  the  busy  pastors  of  that 
body  of  missionary  workers,  each  intent  upon  the  devel- 
opment of  his  own  prescribed  field,  who  could  or  would 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  313 

have  stood  in  the  gap  iu  this  critical  period  and  turned 
defeat  and  oft-repeated  failure  into  victory  and  substan- 
tial success.  In  Mrs.  McFarland's  letters,  all  of  which 
have  been  carefully  preserved,  there  is  abuudaut  evidence 
that,  next  to  God,  her  dependence  was  ui^ou  Sheldon  Jack- 
son for  the  means  to  support  h*er  iu  her  arduous  work  and 
to  enable  her  to  continue  the  mission.  But  for  his  assur- 
ance of  continued  help  and  support,  she  would  not  have 
remained  in  the  field.  In  its  dealings  with  Mrs.  McFar- 
land,  at  the  first,  the  Board  seemed  to  recoguize  the 
claim  of  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon,  and  deferred,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  the  judgment  of  its  Standing  Committee  of 
Home  Missions,  but  all  the  evidence  in  hand  goes  to  show 
that  it  was  nevertheless  dependent  upon  Dr.  Jackson  for 
the  securing  of  funds  and  the  awakening  of  interest  in  be- 
half of  Alaska.  At  a  later  date,  when  conflicting  inter- 
ests threatened  the  very  existence  of  the  mission,  a  care- 
ful examination  of  the  enabling  act  uuder  which  the 
Synod  of  Columbia  was  erected  was  made  ;  and  it  was 
found  that  Alaska  was  not  included  within  its  distinctly 
defined  boundaries.  Strangely  enough,  the  very  exist- 
ence of  this  far-away  province  as  a  possible  addition  to 
the  ecclesiastical  territory  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
seemed  to  be  ignored  or  overlooked  by  the  Assembly  of 
187(5,  when  framing  the  utmost  bounds  of  this  great  Synod 
of  the  Nortliwest.  At  this  time,  and  for  almost  a  decade 
preceding  it,  Alaska  was  in  reality  a  "  No-man's  Land  " 
in  its  relations  to  the  Church  :  and  the  same  might  be  said 
of  its  relations  to  the  state,  except  in  the  matter  of 
revenue  and  the  recognition  of  a  nominal  allegiance  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States. 

The  relations  of  Sheldon  Jackson  to  Alaska  were  also 
anomalous  and  witliout  precedent.  He  undertook  the 
work,  in  the  first  instance,  because  of  the  crying  need  of 
its  long  neglected  people,  on  his  own  responsibility  :  and 


314  SHELDON  JACKSON 

for  seven  years  of  unremitting  toil,  during  which  he  had 
no  official  connection  with  either  mission  or  school,  he 
laboured  to  the  full  extent  of  his  ability  in  the  interests 
of  both.  In  the  commission  which  he  held  from  the 
Home  Board,  Alaska  was  not  mentioned,  nor  included, 
during  the  whole  of  the  above  mentioned  period,  nor  did 
he  receive  any  additional  salary  as  a  compensation  for 
the  time,  labour  and  expenses  of  travel  he  so  freely  and 
unselfishly  gave  to  the  opening  up  and  development  of 
the  country  in  order  that  its  native  population  might 
enjoy  all  the  privileges  and  blessings  of  a  Christian 
civilization. 

In  the  heat  of  the  contention  relating  to  the  question 
of  jurisdiction,  it  was  asserted  by  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon' 
that  the  mission  at  Fort  "Wrangell  was  successfully  estab- 
lished before  the  first  visit  of  Dr.  Jackson.  The  writer 
has  carefully  examined  all  the  evidence  available,  bear- 
ing upon  this  point,  and  can  find  no  substantial  basis  for 
this  claim.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska, 
soon  after  its  organization,  prepared  an  "Official  Sketch  " 
of  the  rise  and  progress  of  its  mission  work,  which  har- 
monizes in  all  its  details  with  the  facts  already  given. 
At  a  later  date,  when  these  statements  were  again  called 
in  question,  the  presbytery  in  session  at  Sitka,  July  15, 
1895,  reaffirmed  the  official  account  in  the  action  follow- 
ing :— 

Attention  having  been  called  to  an  article  published  in  The 
North  and  West,  of  June  20,  1895,  by  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Holt, 
entitled  "Authentic  History  of  Alaskan  Missions,"  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Alaska  desire  to  reply  that  the  said  article  is  mislead- 
ing and  one-sided. 

That  while  acknowledging  the  interest  which  Dr.  A.  L.  Linds- 
ley  took  in  the  establishment  of  missions  in  Alaska,  they  do  not 
recognize  him  as  the  "founder  of  the  Alaska  Mission,"  as 
claimed  by  Mr.  Holt. 

Dr.  Lindsley  was  but  one  of  several  gentlemen  working  at 


Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Alaska. 
(For  names  see  Appendix,  page  482.     Group  8.) 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  315 

the  same  problem  at  the  same  time.  And  the  Christian  public 
is  right  in  considering  that  the  one  who  first  commenced  active 
work,  and  contmuousiy  pushed  it  on  until  the  present  time,  is 
our  co-presbyter,  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson. 

It  is  conceded  that  if  the  facts  of  a  man's  life  are  wanted, 
that  the  man  himself  is  the  best  authority  as  to  those  facts. 

Having  this  in  mind,  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska,  at  its  first 
meeting,  September  15,  1884,  prepared  and  adopted,  after  full 
and  careful  consideration,  an  official  statement  of  the  rise  and 
progress  of  the  present  work  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Alaska. 

The  history  was  prepared  by  the  pioneers  of  the  presbytery, 
while  all  the  first  missionaries  were  still  in  Alaska,  except  the 
Rev.  George  W.  Lyon,  who  was  only  here  a  few  months,  and 
every  minister  present  at  presbytery  except  one,  and  he,  upon 
his  return  home  signified  his  approval  of  the  paper. 

More  than  that,  the  historical  statement  was  submitted  to 
such  of  the  lady  missionaries  as  were  present  and  had  taken  an 
active  part  in  making  the  history. 

See  printed  historical  statement,  entitled  "The  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Alaska,  an  Official  Sketch  of  its  Rise  and  Progress, 
1 87 7-1 884,  with  the  Minutes  of  the  First  Meeting  of  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Alaska,  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  Stated  Clerk.  Press 
of  Thomas  McGill  &  Co.,  1107  E  Street,  Washington,  D.  C, 
1886." 

Done  in  presbytery  in  session  at  Sitka,  Alaska,  this  15th  day 
of  July,  1895. 


This  historical  sketch  gives  the  following  items  also 
relating  to  the  ecclesiastical  conuectious  of  the  territory 
of  Alaska : — 


In  1880,  Rev.  S.  Hall  Young  and  Rev.  G.  W.  Lyon  peti- 
tioned the  General  Assembly  in  session  at  Madison,  Wis.,  to 
create  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska.  I'his  petition  was  joined  in 
by  Dr.  Jackson.  As  there  was  not  a  sufficient  number  of  min- 
isters resident  in  Alaska  to  enable  the  assembly  to  create  a 
presbytery,  Rev.  Dr.  Jackson  asked  the  Committee  on  Church 
Polity  to  recommend  that  Alaska  be  attached  to  the  Presbytery 
of  Puget  Sound  as  the  nearest  presbytery,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Linds- 


316  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ley  asked  that  it  might  be  connected  with  the  Presbytery  of 
Oregon. 

The  committee  recommended  as  follows  : — 

"  Overture  No.  6  is  a  memorial  from  S.  Hall  Young,  George  W.  Lyon, 
and  Sheldon  Jackson,  requesting  that  the  General  Assembly  organize  the 
Presbytery  of  Alaska  to  include  all  the  territory  of  Alaska  ;  or,  if  this  can- 
not be  done,  to  place  the  ministers  in  Alaska  in  connection  with  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Puget  Sound.  The  committee  recommend  that  for  the  present 
no  action  be  taken  in  these  matters." — Minutes  of  General  Assembly, 
1880,  page  44. 

On  the  nth  of  May,  1881,  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon  over- 
tured  the  General  Assembly  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  to  define  the 
ecclesiastical  relations  of  Alaska,  laying  claim  to  the  jurisdiction, 
to  which  the  General  Assembly  made  the  following  response  : — 

"  That  the  territory  of  Alaska  be  attached  to  the  Synod  of  the  Columbia, 
who  shall  take  orders  in  relation  to  the  presbyterial  connection  of  its 
ministers  and  churches." — Minutes  0/  General  Assembly,  1881,  page  ^go. 

This  shows  that  the  General  Assembly  did  not  consider 
Alaska  as  already  belonging  to  the  synod,  but  as  unorganized 
territory ;  therefore,  by  its  own  power,  the  assembly  attached 
it  to  the  synod. 

Alaska  having  been  attached  to  the  Synod  of  the  Columbia 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  1881,  and  a  sufficient  number  of 
ministers  having  moved  into  it  to  constitute  a  presbytery,  the 
General  Assembly  of  1883,  in  session  at  Saratoga  Springs, 
N.  Y.,  May  25th,  in  response  to  the  petitions  of  all  the  min- 
isters in  Alaska  and  an  overture  from  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon, 
created  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska. 

Sheldon  Jackson's  vacation,  whicli  covered  two  months 
of  the  summer  of  1879,  was  not  a  period  of  rest,  in  the 
usual  acceptation  of  the  term.  It  afforded  him  the  op- 
portunity to  make  a  second  visit  to  Alaska  which  he  was 
anxious  to  improve  to  the  utmost  limit,  and  it  was  in 
reality  one  of  the  busiest  and  most  fruitful  periods  of  his 
active  missionaiy  life.  The  dominant  thought  in  his  mind 
at  this  time  was  to  arouse  the  Church  and  the  nation  to  a 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  welfare  and  enlightenment 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  317 

t 

of  this  beniglited  and  almost  forgotten  land.  With  this 
object  in  view,  he  made  an  attempt  to  secure  a  represent- 
ative of  Congress  and  also  of  the  Educational  Depart- 
ment at  Washington,  to  accompany  him  on  this  tour. 
The  Hon.  Stanley  Matthews,  and  General  Eaton,  Com- 
missioner of  the  National  Bureau  of  Education,  were  very 
desirous  of  accepting  his  invitation,  but  as  the  time  drew 
near  for  the  journey  both  were  hindered  from  carrying 
out  their  wishes.  In  his  efforts  to  secure  a  representative 
of  the  Home  Board  and  of  the  Woman's  Missionary  As- 
sociation, he  was  more  successful.  The  Board  had  an 
able  representative  in  its  veteran  secretary,  Dr.  Henry 
Kendall.  The  Pacific  coast  had  another,  in  Dr.  A.  L. 
Lindsley,  of  Portland,  and  the  woman's  department  was 
represented  by  three  of  its  most  active  supporters,  in  their 
several  stations,  Mrs.  Sheldon  Jackson,  Mrs.  Henry  Ken- 
dall, and  Mrs.  A.  L.  Lindsley.  Miss  M.  J.  Dunbar,  a 
missionary  teacher  under  commission  of  the  Board,  joined 
the  party  en  route  and  travelled  with  them  to  Fort  Wran- 
gell.  The  arrival  of  this  company  of  interested  friends 
was  hailed  with  joy  by  the  missionaries  and  the  native 
Christians.  A  warm  welcome  was  extended  to  them  at 
every  point  which  they  were  able  to  visit.  "This  was 
particularly  the  case,"  writes  one  of  the  party,  "with 
Dr.  Kendall.  No  late  event  has  so  favourably  impressed 
the  Indians  as  this  visit  of  Dr.  Kendall.  Of  command- 
ing personal  presence,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  a  Board 
tliat  has  its  thousand  men  stretching  from  Alaska  to  Flor- 
ida, coming  from  the  shores  of  a  distant  ocean  to  inquire 
after  their  welfare,  bringing  the  money  raised  by  Dr. 
Jackson  to  erect  the  Girls'  Industrial  Home,  it  is  uo  won- 
der that  the  Indians  recognized  him  as  the  'Great  Chief.' 
One  after  another,  their  chiefs  and  leading  men  called  to 
see  him  and  express  their  pleasure  at  his  visit ;  one  with 
great  earnestness  remarking  that  he  had  not  slept  all  night 


318  SHELDON  JACKSON 

for  joy.  The  missionaries,  too,  were  greatly  encouraged 
by  his  visit  to  this  field.  His  large  experience  and  wise 
counsels  solved  for  them  many  a  knotty  problem.  His 
patience  and  kindliness  in  entering  into  the  details  of  their 
difficulties  and  trials,  his  large  sympathies,  greatly  en- 
deared him  to  them ;  while  his  hopefulness  encouraged 
their  hearts,  strengthened  their  hands,  and  stimulated 
them  to  fresh  zeal  in  the  work." 

The  success  of  the  lone  mission,  established  in  the  face 
of  so  many  difficulties  and  discouragements,  nearly  two 
years  before  the  date  of  this  visit,  had  more  than  justified 
the  expectation,  and  rewarded  the  labours  of  its  cour- 
ageous founder  and  promoter. 

During  this  brief  period,  two  important  stations  had 
been  occupied,  the  missionary  force  had  been  increased, 
including  Miss  Dunbar,  from  one  to  six ;  and  a  fund, 
approximating  $12, 000,  had  been  secured  for  the  building 
of  the  home  and  the  support  of  the  missionaries  on  the 
field. 

The  following  extracts  from  the  letters  of  leading  mis- 
sionaries in  the  field  during  this  period,  show  how  closely 
Dr.  Jackson  was  related  to  every  movement  contributing 
to  the  success  of  the  mission  and  how  highly  he  was  es- 
teemed and  appreciated  by  them  for  his  work's  sake. 

Under  date  of  February  11,  1879,  the  Eev.  S.  Hall 
Young,  missionary  at  Fort  Wrangell,  writes  : — 


"We  feel  encouraged  about  the  home.  Thanks^  many,  viany 
thanks  for  your  tioble  efforts  on  behalf  of  our  mission. ' '  Later, 
March  nth,  he  adds: — "Your  letter  of  February  15th  has 
caused  great  rejoicing  at  the  mission.  Our  hopes  now  have 
eagle's  wings.  God  is  better  than  our  fears.  The  future  that 
this  mission  merits  seems  likely  now  to  be  at  least  proximately 
realized.  And  to  you,  under  God,  we  give  hearty  thanks  as 
the  kind  instrument  of  this  change  for  the  better  in  our  pros- 
petts.     You  have  our  gratitude  far  beyond  any  other  man. 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  319 

Vov  have  proved  yourself  an  unselfish,  self-sacrificing,  earnest 
friend  of  Alaska  and  its  missions.  We  are  all  your  firm  and 
grateful  friends,  and  pray  always  for  your  success  and  welfare." 

About  the  same  time  Mrs.  McFaiiand  writes  : — 

There  has  been  a  song  in  my  heart  ever  since  the  mail  ar- 
rived bringing  us  the  news  of  the  noble  response  to  the  call  in 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Presbyterian.  .  .  .  I  am  sure  the 
mission  owes  everything  to  yon.  I  pray  God  you  may  come  to 
us  this  summer. 

Similar  testimony  is  given,  under  date  of  Marcli  21, 
1879,  by  the  Rev.  Jolm  G.  Brady,  the  first  missionary  sent 
out  by  the  Board  to  the  Alaskan  field  : — 

You  have  done  more  than  any  one  in  stirring  up  an  interest 
in  Alaska.  Nearly  all  the  funds  which  have  been  raised  must 
be  accredited  to  your  zeal.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  General 
Eaton,  Dr.  Kendall,  and  yourself  contemplate  a  visit  to  Alaska 
this  summer.  Your  report  of  affairs  cannot  but  have  a  good 
effect  upon  the  public  mind. 

At  a  later  date, — August  11, 1881, — Mr.  Brady  wrote  : — 

It  was  you  who  first  brought  the  needs  of  Alaska  to  my 
mind  and  urged  my  going  into  the  mission  work  in  this  field. 
This  was  in  November,  1877,  soon  after  you  had  returned  from 
your  first  visit  to  the  territory.  It  is  my  belief  that  you  have 
done  more  to  interest  the  sympathy  of  Christian  people  in  be- 
half of  these  natives  than  all  others  put  together.  To  deny 
your  great  service,  is  simply  to  shut  one's  eyes  against  the  light. 
It  is  hard  to  understand  why  some  brethren  should  so  persist- 
ently and  bitterly  antagonize  you  and  your  efforts  to  establish 
and  support  missions  in  this  abused  land. 

The  service  which  Dr.  Jackson  rendered  to  the  natives 
of  Alaska  was  not  limited  to  missionary  work  on  their 
behalf  alone.  From  the  date  of  his  first  visit  he  sought 
interviews  with  members  of  Congress  and  wrote  letters  to 


320  SHELDON  JACKSON 

influeutial  representative  men  of  the  nation,  as  well  as 
appeals  in  the  public  press, — urging  the  establishment  of 
public  schools  and  the  formation  of  a  provisional  govern- 
ment for  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  protection 
of  life  and  property.  With  a  view  to  securing  a  basis  for 
Congressional  action,  Drs.  Kendall  and  Jackson  were 
requested  by  Hon.  Carl  Shurz,  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
to  collect  information  bearing  upon  the  condition  and 
necessities  of  the  native  iJOj)ulation  and  report  the  same 
to  the  officials  of  that  department.  A  semi-official  char- 
acter was  thus  given  to  the  expedition,  and  in  order  to 
facilitate  its  work  in  the  regions  beyond  the  ordinary 
routes  of  travel,  it  was  ordered  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury, — John  Sherman, — that  transportation  should  be 
furnished  to  the  party  from  Sitka  to  Kodiack  and  return, 
on  the  revenue  cutter  Rush.  For  some  reason,  as  it 
afterwards  appeared,  this  vessel  did  not  make  the  trip,  as 
anticipated,  that  season,  and  this  part  of  the  programme 
was  not  carried  out.  The  report  was  made,  however,  with 
respect  to  the  conditions  of  the  sections  actually  visited, 
on  their  return,  and  in  due  time  it  did  become  a  basis  for 
favourable  Congressional  action. 

A  memorable  event  in  connection  with  this  visit  was 
the  organization  of  the  native  Christians,  at  Fort  Wran- 
gell,  into  a  Presbyterian  church,  the  first  Protestant 
church  of  Alaska.  For  several  months  preceding,  Mr. 
Young,  the  missionary  in  charge,  had  carefully  instructed 
them  in  a  special  class  with  respect  to  the  nature  and 
duties  of  church-membershii),  and  the  preparatory  exam- 
inations were  searching  and  thorough. 

At  the  time  appointed  for  the  service,  August  3d,  in 
the  presence  of  the  visiting  ministers  and  their  wives  and 
a  large  assembly  of  whites  and  Indians,  twenty-three  per- 
sons, eighteen  of  whom  were  natives,  were  received  and 
welcomed  as  the  basis  of  this  new  organization.     The  fol- 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  321 

lowing  Sabbath,  five  additional  members,  four  of  whom 
were  Indians,  were  received  u])on  profession  of  their 
faith.  At  the  former  service,  Dr.  Kendall  preached  the 
sermon,  Dr.  Jackson  offered  the  constituting  prayer,  the 
Eev.  S.  Hall  Young  welcomed  and  baptized  the  new  mem- 
bers. Dr.  Lindsley  read  the  covenant  of  membership,  and 
the  Eev.  W.  H.  E.  Corlies,  M.  D.,  pronounced  the  bene- 
diction. Two  carpenters  working  on  the  church  building 
and  the  home,  were  among  the  number  received  upon 
confession  of  their  faith. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Drs.  Jackson  and  Kendall,  the 
arrangements  for  the  construction  of  the  mission  build- 
ings at  Wrangell,  including  the  church  and  the  home, 
were  made  as  rapidly  as  the  necessary  materials  could  be 
procured.  "No  one,"  says  Dr.  Jackson,  ''that  has  not 
tried  building  a  thousand  miles  from  a  hardware  store 
and  a  hundred  miles  from  a  sawmill,  in  a  community 
where  there  was  not  a  horse,  wagon,  or  cart,  and  but  one 
wheelbarrow,  can  realize  the  vexatious  delays  incident  to 
such  a  work.  ISTotwithstandiug  these  drawbacks,  the 
house  of  worship  was  occupied  for  services  on  Sabbath, 
October  5th,  and  the  home  was  enclosed  before  the  rigour 
of  the  winter  season  put  an  end  to  outside  work. 

The  arrival  of  a  large  canoe  from  the  Chilcat  country, 
loaded  with  furs,  and  bound  for  Fort  Simpson,  suggested 
to  the  alert  leader  of  the  party,  while  at  Fort  Wrangell, 
the  possibility  of  extending  his  exploration  tour  to  the 
mission  stations  of  the  Methodist  and  Episcopal  churches 
at  Fort  Simpson  and  Metlahkatlah,  in  British  Columbia. 
The  canoe  which  made  its  appearance  in  the  harbour  at 
a  time  so  favourable  for  this  journey,  was  about  thirty- 
five  feet  long,  five  wide,  and  three  feet  in  depth,  and  was 
manned  by  eighteen  Indians.  Twelve  of  this  number 
were  pagans  of  the  Chilcat  tribe,  one  of  whom  was  a 
chief,  and  another  a  medicine-man.     The  rest  of  the  crew 


322  SHELDON  JACKSON 

were  Christian  Indians  from  Fort  Simpson,  and,  througli 
their  influence,  Sheldon  Jackson  had  no  difficulty  in  ar- 
ranging for  the  journey.  A  comfortable  seat  was  allotted 
to  him  in  the  centre  of  the  boat,  with  blanket  and  pro- 
visions within  easy  reach.  Thus  surrounded  by  natives, 
all  of  whom  were  strangers  and  unable  to  communicate 
with  him  except  by  signs,  this  faithful  missionary  of  the 
Cross  faced  a  new  and  untried  experience  of  travel  for  a 
distance  of  250  miles,  through  tossing  waves  and  swelling 
surf  and  dripping  fogs,  with  the  hope  of  reaching  the  lost 
in  other  tribes,  among  whom  Christ  had  not  been  so  much 
as  named. 

Frequently  along  the  way,  he  tells  us,  the  Chilcat  In- 
dians would  break  out  into  singing  one  of  their  national 
airs,  to  cheer  the  rowers.  This  would  challenge  the 
Christian  Indians,  who  would  follow  with  a  number  of 
the  precious  hymns  of  Bliss  and  Sankey. 

One  evening,  after  a  large  number  of  these  had  been 
sung,  the  old  chief  and  shaman  inquired,  ''Who  is  this 
Jesus  you  sing  about!"  Then  the  Tsimpsean  Indians 
gladly  preached  Jesus  unto  them.  These  Christian  In- 
dians carry  their  religion  with  him  wherever  they  go. 
They  were  now  returning  from  a  voyage  of  over  a  thou- 
sand miles.  They  had  been  on  the  way  for  weeks,  but 
neither  wind  nor  tide  nor  hunger,  nor  persuasion  of  their 
pagan  companions,  could  induce  them  to  travel  on  the 
Lord's  day. 

On  this  voyage,  which  occupied  six  days,  but  little 
time  was  taken  for  rest  or  sleep,  and  every  advantage  of 
favouring  wind  and  weather  was  utilized  to  cover  the 
most  exposed  portions  of  the  treacherous  watery  way 
which  lay  before  them.  One  day's  work,  for  lack  of 
a  suitable  landing-place,  covered  twenty-three  consecutive 
hours.  The  bill  of  fare  during  this  journey  consisted  of 
"  biscuit  and  salmon  for  breakfast  and  supper,  and  salmon 


Sheldon  Jackson,  Editor. 


Denver.  Co  torado»  March,  i9'72 . 


Vol    I      No   ) 


K 


y 


I.  Facsimile  of  tlie  iicadiiig  of  the  R.  Ml.  Pres.   (.reduced  size). 

2.  A    week's    canoe    voyage    along    the    stormy    coast    of    Alaska. 

3.  Ice-bound  in  the  Arctic  Ocean  on  the  U.  S.  R.  Cutter  Bear. 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  323 

and  biscuit  for  dinner."  But  the  Indians  on  the  trip  only 
averaged  one  meal  in  twenty-four  hours.  "One  even- 
ing," says  Dr.  Jackson,  ''we  passed  Cape  Fox,  and 
boldly  launched  out  to  cross  an  arm  of  the  sea,  and,  once 
out,  it  was  as  dangerous  to  turn  back  as  to  go  forward. 
The  night  was  dark,  the  waves  rolling  high,  and  the 
storm  upon  us.  One  Indian  stood  upon  the  i^row  of  the 
canoe,  watching  the  waves  and  giving  orders.  Every 
paddler  was  at  his  place,  and  the  stroke  of  his  paddle 
kept  time  with  the  measured  song  of  the  leader,  who  kept 
time  with  the  roll  of  the  waves,  mounting  each  wave  with 
two  strokes  of  the  i)addle.  Then  with  a  click,  each 
paddle  would,  at  the  same  instant,  strike  the  side  of  the 
canoe  and  remain  motionless,  gathering  strength  for  the 
next  two  strokes,  as  the  billow  would  strike  the  canoe, 
causing  it  to  quiver  from  stem  to  stern.  It  was  a  long, 
tedious  night  that  in  the  rain  and  fog  and  darkness,  we 
tossed  in  this  frail  canoe  upon  the  waters,  but  daylight 
found  us  at  an  Indian  village  near  the  now  deserted  site 
of  Fort  Tongas." 

At  this  place,  Sheldon  Jackson  had  a  brief  conference 
with  Kimcoe,  a  chief  of  the  Tongas  tribe  who  pleaded 
earnestly  for  a  Christian  teacher  for  his  people.  The  last 
day's  voyage  is  thus  described  : 

"  The  wind  had  been  against  us  all  the  way  from  Fort 
Wrangell.  It  had  rained  more  or  less  each  day  we  had 
been  out,  and  the  storm  had  continued  to  increase  in  vio- 
lence. Some  of  the  Indians  being  so  exhausted  bv  the 
labours  of  the  past  night  that  they  dropped  asleep  at  their 
paddles,  it  was  thouglit  best  to  go  ashore  and  get  some 
rest.  On  shore,  we  tried  to  start  a  fire,  but  the  driving 
rain  soon  extinguished  it.  Taking  my  regulation  meal 
of  salmon  and  hard-tack,  I  spread  my  blankets  under  a 
big  log  and  tried  to  sleep.  Tlie  beating  storm  soon  satur- 
ated the  blankets,  and  I  awoke  to  find  the  water  running 


321  SHELDON  JACKSON 

down  my  back.  Rising,  I  paced  up  and  down  the  beach 
until  tlie  Indians  were  ready  to  move  on.  After  a  rest  of 
two  hours,  seeing  no  signs  of  a  lull  in  the  storm,  we  re- 
embarked,  determined,  if  possible,  to  make  Fort  Simp- 
son. That  afternoon,  cold,  wet  and  hungry,  we  ran  into 
the  harbour  at  Simj^son,  and  received  a  warm  welcome 
from  Mr.  Crosby  and  the  native  Christians."  During  his 
stay  at  this  mission,  Dr.  Jackson  had  a  conference,  or 
*' council,"  as  the  Indians  term  it,  with  two  chiefs  of  the 
Chilcat  tribe,  w]io  declared  their  desire  to  give  up  their 
heathen  practices  and  learn  the  better  way,  as  soon  as  a 
teacher  should  be  sent  to  them.  A  similar  request  for 
help  was  made  by  a  delegation  of  Tongas.  Thus  the 
way  was  prepared,  through  danger,  exposure  and  unusual 
hardships  for  a  fuller  development  of  the  work  in  Alaska. 

A  few  years  later,  Sheldon  Jackson  had  the  privilege 
of  receiving  into  the  church  some  of  his  fellow  voyagers 
of  the  Chilcat  tribe.  One  of  them  was  accompanied  by 
his  son,  a  lad  of  ten  or  twelve  years.  Afterwards,  this 
boy  was  educated  at  Sitka,  and  Dr.  Jackson  had  the  joy 
of  receiving  him  into  the  church  on  confession  of  his 
faith.  This  boy,  Rudolph  Walton,  is  a  successful  manu- 
facturer of  native  jewelry.  He  owns  a  jewelry  store  in 
Sitka,  and  for  many  years  has  been  an  active  ruling 
elder  in  the  native  church  of  that  i)lace. 

From  Fort  Simpson,  the  journey  was  continued  by 
canoe  to  Metlahkatlah. 

At  both  of  these  points,  our  missionary  explorer  had 
overwhelming  evidence  of  the  transforming  power  of  the 
Gospel  among  these  long-neglected  natives,  as  well  as  of 
their  eagerness  to  receive  the  knowledge  of  the  way  of 
life.  And  with  intensified  zeal  he  returned  to  arouse  the 
Church  and  the  nation,  to  the  intent  that  a  similar  work 
should  be  attempted  among  the  benighted  inhabitants  on 
the  American  side  of  the  line,  in  Alaska. 


A  SUMMER  VACATION  325 

Eeferring  to  this  tour  and  its  immediate  results,  the 
editor  of  the  J^ew  York  Observer  wrote  : — 

Among  all  the  enterprising,  pushing,  and  successful  pio- 
neers in  aggressive  work,  our  friend  Sheldon  Jackson  is  one  of  the 
best  and  bravest.  He  has  been  named  "  Bishop  of  the  Outside 
World,"  "Apostle  to  them  that  have  no  other  teacher,"  and  he 
deserves  the  titles.  lu  a  recent  trip  to  Alaska,  with  thirteen 
Indians,  he  made  a  canoe  voyage  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
along  the  coast,  in  order  to  visit  some  Indian  villages  that  he 
could  not  reach  by  steamer.  Writing  tons,  in  a  private  letter, 
he  said  :  "  You  haven't  seen  the  world  until  you  have  visited 
this  wonderful  North  Pacific  coast.  Bayard  Taylor  or  yourself 
could  adequately  describe  it,  and  I  think  it  would  tax  your 
ready  pen  and  descriptive  powers  to  the  utmost. ' ' 

During  this  and  the  preceding  tour,  Dr.  Jackson  col- 
lected much  valuable  information  at  first  hand,  relating 
to  the  country  and  its  native  iK)i)iilation,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  book  form  in  the  spring  of  1880,  under  the  title, 
"Alaska  and  its  Mission  on  the  North  Pacific  Coast."  ' 
This  work,  the  first  of  its  kind,  aroused  much  interest  in 
this  wonder-laud  of  the  Northwest,  and  was  one  of  the 
most  potdnt  iufltiences  exerted  at  that  time  in  its  opening 
up  and  development  along  the  lines  of  mission  women 
and  Cliristian  civilization.  It  was  a  timely  contribution, 
also,  to  the  work  of  the  then  recently  organized  f(|ices 
operating  under  the  direction  of  the  Woman's  Executive 
Committee  ;  and  it  soon  found  its  way  into  the  libraries 
of  its  auxiliary  societies  as  a  book  of  reference  and  a 
stimulus  to  its  workers  all  over  the  land, 

*  Published  by  Dodd  Mead  aud  Company,  New  York. 


XV 

EXTENSION   AND   DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE  WORK 
AMONG  THE  EXCEPTIONAL  POPULATION 

(1882-1885) 

"The  steps  of  faith  fall  on  the  seeming  void, 
And  find  the  rock  beneath," 

—  Whittier. 

BY  force  of  circmnstauces,  as  well  as  by  the  clear 
indicatious  of  provideutial  guidance,  Sheldon 
Jacksou  became  the  Apostle  of  the  exceptional 
population  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Alaska.  The 
organization  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  of 
Home  Missions  fui-nished  the  long -desired  agency  for  the 
prosecution  of  this  work,  and  with  hearty  enthusiasm  he 
presented  its  cause  and  sought  to  extend  its  area  of  influ- 
ence. While  he  was  not  officially  designated  or  com- 
missioned for  work  in  Alaska  from  1877  to  1884,  he  was 
recognized  by  the  Church,  and  also  by  the  Home  Board, 
as  the  efficient  leader  of  those  who  were  labouring  in  its  in- 
terests, and  the  able  advocate  of  their  cause.  In  this 
work,  he  had  also  the  sanction  and  encouragement  of  the 
secretaries  of  the  Board,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  the 
recognized  agent  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee 
in  the  securing  of  funds  and  in  the  founding  and  establish- 
ment of  all  the  mission  stations  in  Alaska.  In  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  1880,  he  was  introduced  by  the  moder- 
ator, at  a  mass  meeting  in  the  interests  of  home  missions, 
as  "a  missionary  bishop  whose  diocese  is  greater  than  the 
ancient  dominion  of  Alexander. ' '  This  was  literally  true 
at  the  time,  but  in  accordance  with  his  earnest  request — 

326 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      327 

a  request  which  heretofore  had  not  been  favourably  acted 
U150U — arrangements  were  already  being  made  for  a  divi- 
sion of  his  field.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  presbyteries 
and  the  disappearance  of  the  frontier  lines  in  some  of  the 
sections  under  his  care,  made  it  necessary  for  a  readjust- 
ment of  the  old  relations  ;  and  in  the  allotment  of  work 
he  accepted  by  preference  that  portion  of  his  field  which 
included  the  Indian  tribes  and  the  newer  missions  which 
he  had  established  among  the  native  population  of  the 
territory  of  New  Mexico.  From  the  date  of  this  readjust- 
ment, Dr.  Jackson's  work  was  mainly  in  the  interests  of 
the  woman's  work.  With  the  modest  title  of  "Mission- 
ary" on  the  face  of  his  commission — which  meant  to  one 
reading  between  the  lines — missionary  at  large,  he  looked 
after  the  interests  of  New  Mexico  and  Alaska  from  Octo- 
ber, 1879,  to  January,  1882.  During  this  period  he  also 
delivered  hundreds  of  addresses,  secured  funds  in  ever- 
growing measure  for  all  departments  and  phases  of  the 
woman's  work  ;  wrote  personal  letters  to  every  member 
of  Cougress,  asking  their  influence  in  securing  schools  and 
an  organized  form  of  government  for  Alaska  ;  edited  the 
Rocky  Mountain  Presbyterian — then  the  organ  of  the 
Woman's  Executive  Committee  ;  represented  the  Home 
Board  in  arranging  with  the  government  for  contract 
schools  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  ; 
and,  as  already  noted,  acted  as  agent  for  the  government 
in  collecting  Indian  children  for  the  industrial  schools 
at  Hami)ton  and  Carlisle. 

At  its  regular  fall  meeting,  in  1879,  the  Presbytery  of 
Puget  Sound,  which  occupied  the  nearest  territory  to  the 
Alaskan  field,  took  the  following  action  : — 


Resolved, — That  the  Presbytery  of  Puget  Sound,  while  record- 
ing its  thanks  to  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  fur  the  great  in- 
terest manifested  by  him  in  the  mission  work  of  Alaska,  requests 


828  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  Board  of  Home  Missions  to  send  him  to  Washington  City, 
with  instructions  to  prosecute  the  claims  of  the  natives  of 
Alaska  before  the  Department  of  the  Interior  for  a  share  of  the 
fund  annually  expended  in  the  maintenance  of  industrial  board- 
ing-schools among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States. 


This  request  was  evidently  in  line  with  his  efforts  which 
took  definite  shape  and  were  characterized  by  his  usual 
directness  and  persistence,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1880. 

While  in  Washington  City,  on  this  errand,  a  public 
reception  was  given  to  Dr.  Jackson  and  the  Hon.  A.  B. 
Meacham,  the  well-known  advocate  of  the  humane  policy 
towards  the  Indians,  at  the  headquarters  of  the  National 
Greenback  Press  Association  on  the  evening  of  January 
26th. 

"  The  rooms,"  says  a  newspaper  correspondent,  "  were 
crowded  with  representative  men  and  women,  including  large 
numbers  of  senators  and  members  of  the  House.  Able 
speeches  were  made  by  Dr.  Jackson  on  Alaska ;  by  Col. 
Meacham  on  the  true  Indian  policy ;  also  by  Col.  W.  P. 
Adair,  Gen.  Pleasant  Porter,  and  delegates  from  the  Cherokee 
and  Creek  nations,  respectively.  The  Indians  are  men  of 
great  ability  and  superior  culture  and  they  were  listened  to 
with  as  much  interest  as  were  the  distinguished  speakers  of  the 
white  race,  who  made  the  principal  speeches  of  the  evening. 
Dr.  Jackson's  description  of  Alaska,  of  its  size,  being  equal  to 
the  states  lying  north  of  the  Ohio  and  south  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  with  a  coast  line  of  25,000  miles,  etc.,  etc., — was  very 
interesting.  His  purpose  is  to  secure  the  passage  of  a  bill  or- 
ganizing Alaska  into  a  territory.  This  should  be  done  at 
once." 

With  the  opening  of  the  year  1881,  the  name  of  the 
missionary  paper  which  he  founded,  and  had  edited  since 
1871,  was  changed  from  the  Bocky  Mountain  Presbyterian 
to  Presbyterian  Home  Missions,  in  order  to  indicate  the 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      329 

wider  scope  of  its  mission  as  the  organ  of  the  Woman's 
Executive  Committee. 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  varied  activities  which  claimed 
his  attention,  and  in  the  face  of  many  discouragements 
and  disaijpointineuts,  Sheldon  Jackson  was  ever  mindful 
of  the  promise  he  had  made  to  the  pagan  chiefs  in  Alaska, 
while  on  his  canoe  voyage  to  Fort  Simpson  ;  and  with 
patient  i)ersisteucy  he  sought  for  the  men  and  ]3leaded  for 
the  money  to  fulfill  this  promise.  In  the  spring  of  1881, 
he  saw  his  way  clear,  with  the  tacit  assent  of  the  Home 
Board,  to  begin  the  establishment  of  these  missions. 
There  seems  to  have  been  no  objection  from  any  quarter 
at  the  time  to  this  undertaking  j  nor  to  the  visit  to 
Alaska,  which  he  proposed  to  take  in  order  to  carry  it 
out.  One  of  the  missionaries  who  offered  himself  for  this 
field  was  the  Eev,  Eugene  S.  Willard,  a  graduate  of  the 
Western  Theological  Seminary,  class  of  1881.  He  with 
his  wife  aud  child  took  the  June  steamer  for  Fort 
Wrangell,  and  arrived  at  Sitka  on  the  10th  of  the  same 
month. 

Dr.  Jackson  arrived  on  the  July  steamer,  and  soon 
afterwards  accompanied  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Willard  to  the  al- 
most unknown  country  of  the  Chilcat  tribes,  where  a 
station  was  established  at  a  suitable  site  and  called 
"Haines,"  in  honour  of  Mrs.  F.  E.  Haines,  the  eflScient 
secretary  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  of  Home 
Missions.  Says  Mrs.  Julia  McNair  Wright  in  her  de- 
scription of  the  founding  of  this  mission  : — 

None  of  the  footprints  of  civilization  greeted  the  eyes  of 
these  newcomers  at  Haines  :  they  entered  into  a  wilderness — a 
tribe  of  Indians,  a  few  Indian  houses,  the  short  summer  wear- 
ing away,  drawing  on  apace  a  winter,  when  there  would  be  five 
months  of  deep  snow.  In  December,  the  day  from  sunrise  to 
sunset  would  be  but  four  hours  long.  Wjien  they  were  left  at 
the  station  by  the  last  trailing  boat  in  autumn,  they  need  look 


330  SHELDON  JACKSON 

for  no  boats,  no  white  faces,  no  mails,  no  supplies  of  any  kind, 
until  five  or  six  months  had  passed.  Here  was  isolation,  and 
the  spirit  that  braved  it  was  high  heroism.  The  Board  of 
Missions,  having  no  funds  for  the  erection  of  the  necessary 
buildings  at  Haines,  Dr.  Jackson  borrowed  money  and  erected 
a  house  for  the  Willards.  Upon  his  return  to  the  East,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee,  he  raised  the 
money  to  repay  the  loan. 

Eeferring  to  this,  and  other  acts  of  kindness,  Mrs.  Wil- 
lard  writes  under  date  of  August  27,  1881 : — 

Dear  Friend  and  Brother  : — 

I  cannot  refrain  from  dropping  you  a  note  of  thanks,  al- 
though words  are  so  feeble  to  express  our  appreciation  of  what 
you  have  done  for  us — under  God,  you  have  done  everything 
for  us.  In  the  first  place,  you  gained  for  us  our  hearts'  desire, 
the  appointment  to  preach  glad  tidings  to  the  Chilcats.  You 
advised  and  encouraged  us  by  the  way.  We  left  home  with 
the  expectation  of  living  in  a  tent  until  we  could  by  our  own 
labour  put  up  a  log  house.  This  exposure  your  loving  zeal 
and  wise  energy  have  prevented  by  taking  upon  your  shoulders 
a  burden  which  I  trust  will  soon  be  removed  by  an  interested 
people  at  home.  The  financial  burden  I  mean,  for  you  have 
borne  so  much  more  than  that  in  the  planning  and  erecting  the 
building,  which  has  given  us  such  a  comfortable  home  in  this 
far-away  land.  Your  coming  with  us,  too,  and  introducing  us 
to  the  very  chiefs  to  whom  you  had  first  promised  a  teacher 
years  ago,  has,  I  am  sure,  been  most  advantageous  to  the  be- 
ginning of  our  work  here.  And  your  counsel  and  advice  have 
been  most  helpful  and  comforting  to  us.  That  God  may  bless 
you  more  and  more  abundantly  in  your  labours  of  love  is  the 
prayer,  with  thanksgiving,  of  your  grateful  sister  in  Christ. 

(Signed)  Carrie  M.  Willard. 

There  are  few  names  more  deserving  of  mention  and  of 
high  honour  among  the  pioneer  missionaries  of  Alaska 
than  the  name  of  the  brave  little  woman  who  wrote  these 
words.  In  the  years  which  followed,  she  cheerfully  en- 
dured privations,  sufferings,  the  oi^positious  and  super- 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      331     • 

stitions  of  tlie  ignorant  natives,  and  the  cares  and  anxieties 
incident  to  an  outbreak  of  smallpox,  wbicli  entered  her 
own  home  and  prostrated  her  little  daughter,  while  at  the 
same  time  her  husband  was  alarmingly  ill,  and  unable  to 
assist  her  in  any  way.  Through  this  trying  experience, 
and  until  Mr.  Willard  was  able  to  help,  there  was  no  one 
to  give  efficient  aid  and  no  physician  or  nurse  to  be  ob- 
tained within  a  hundred  miles.  Before  the  year  closed, 
Mrs.  Willard  was  also  laid  aside  by  a  serious  illness, 
which  for  a  time  threatened  her  life  :  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  prompt  assistance  given  by  friends  in  Sitka,  who 
heard  of  her  condition  and  arranged  for  her  removal  to 
that  place  for  medical  treatment,  all  human  remedies 
would  soon  have  been  unavailing. 

Undeterred  by  the  extraordinary  experiences  of  trial 
and  suffering,  through  which  she  had  passed,  Mrs.  Wil- 
lard retui-ned  after  her  recovery  to  the  mission  at 
Haines,  where  with  her  husband  she  laboured  in  the 
midst  of  privations  and  perils  with  renewed  ardour  and 
signal  success  for  a  period  of  twelve  years.  Her  knowl- 
edge of  medicine  and  nursing  gave  her  much  influence 
among  the  people  to  whom  she  ministered,  and  with  re- 
markable facility  she  acquired  the  Thlinget  language  and 
soon  learned  to  talk  it  perfectly. '  Mrs.  J.  McNair  Wright 
records  the  fact  that  during  the  first  year  in  wliicli  the 
Willards  occupied  this  station,  the  chief,  Don-a-wauk, 
who  was  one  of  tlie  first  to  receive  Christian  baptism,  in- 
fluenced the  whole  village  of  Tiudestak,  where  he  hokl 
rule,  to  move  down  to  the  mission  station,  in  order  to 
have  the  privilege  of  attending  school  and  of  learning 
how  to  be  good.  "  The  village  consisted  of  sixteen  build- 
ings and  172  people.  The  houses  abandoned  at  Tiudestak 
had  cost  the  Indians  much,  and  to  build  new  ones  at 

'  A  very  interesting  account  of  this  mission  is  given  by  Mrs.  Willard 
in  one  of  her  books,  entitled  "  Life  in  Alaska." 


332  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Haines  would  cost  mucli  more.  These  people  were  really 
abandoning  all  things  for  the  sake  of  learning  about 
Christ." 

While  the  mission  houses  were  being  erected  at  Haines, 
in  the  summer  of  1881,  Dr.  Jackson,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Willard  and  the  Eev.  Mr.  Corlies,  made  a  tour  of  explora- 
tion through  the  Chilcat  country,  including  all  the  vil- 
lages of  the  Chilcat  and  Chilcoot  tribes.  During  this 
tour,  a  second  mission  was  located  at  Klukwau,  one  of 
the  Chilcat  villages.  To  this  village  two  pupils  of  the 
Fort  Wrangell  school,  Louis  and  Tillie  Paul,  who  had 
just  been  married,  were  sent  in  the  spring  of  1882  to  open 
a  school  and  hold  the  ground  until  a  missionary  could  be 
obtained. 

On  the  5th  of  August  Drs.  Jackson  and  Corlies 
visited  some  of  the  villages  of  the  Hoouah  tribe  and 
located  a  mission  among  them.  Returning  southward, 
he  visited  the  villages  of  the  Hydah  Indians,  on  Prince 
of  Wales  Island,  and  located  a  mission  at  Howkan. 

The  immediate  results  of  this  missionary  tour  are  thus 
summed  up  in  a  Portland  paper  : — 

Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson,  who  introduced  the  first  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries into  Southeastern  Alaska,  was  a  passenger  down  on 
the  steamer  Los  Atigelos.  This  is  the  doctor's  third  trip  in 
that  section.  On  this  trip  he  established  new  missions  among 
the  Hydahs  and  Hoonahs,  located  three  mission  families, 
erected  substantial  buildings  at  the  Chilcat  and  Hoonah 
stations,  and  fitted  up  a  schoolhouse  at  Hydah.  He  visited 
fifteen  Indian  villages,  and  preached  in  the  majority  of  them. 
The  trip  among  the  villages  was  mostly  in  canoes. 

The  visit  to  the  Hydahs  was  made  in  a  canoe  and  the 
distance  travelled  in  this  frail  vessel  off  a  coast  pro- 
verbially storm-swept,  was  estimated  at  five  hundred 
miles.  For  this  arduous,  perilous,  timely,  and  eminently 
successful  work,  which  gave  to  the  Presbyterian  Church 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT       333 

the  whole  domaiu  of  Southeastern  Alaska,  and  reflected 
much  honour  upon  it,  as  the  i)ioneer  Church  in  this  far- 
away land.  Dr.  Jackson  was  not  even  allowed  the  reim- 
bursement of  his  travelling  expenses  from  the  treasury  of 
the  Board,  It  was  a  labour  of  love  on  his  part,  not 
authorized,  strictly  speaking,  by  the  terms  of  his  com- 
mission, but  undertaken,  as  were  several  of  his  ventures 
in  the  past,  without  regard  to  financial  considerations  or 
merely  technical  limitations.  With  him,  the  great  com- 
mission took  precedence  over  all  other  commissions,  and 
the  voice  of  opportunity  was  the  call  to  duty. 

After  his  return  from  this  journey,  Dr.  Jackson  trans- 
ferred the  ownershii)  of  the  lioclcy  Mountain  Presbyterian^ 
later  known  as  Presbyterian  Home  Missions,  with  its  now 
greatly  augmented  list  of  subscribers,  as  a  free  gift  to  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions.  The  announcement  of  this 
transfer  was  made  in  the  December  number  of  the  paper  : 

''With  the  present  number,  this  paper  becomes  tjie 
property  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  It  is  a  con- 
summation which  we  have  long  looked  forward  to  with 
interest.  A  special  committee  of  the  Board  has  had  the 
matter  under  advisement  for  a  year  past. 

"The  Pocliy  Mountain  Presftyferiaw  was  commenced  in 
March,  1871,  with  the  design  of  bringing  the  Presby- 
terians of  the  territories  where  we  were  then  labouring 
into  close  sympathy  with  each  other  and  the  Church. 
For  this  purjiose,  we  hired  two  pages  of  a  small  monthly 
paper,  edited  by  the  Eev.  Wm.  T.  Wylie,  of  Belle- 
fonte.  Pa.  Once  started,  the  plan  grew  and  enlarged  un- 
til, in  Jamiary,  1873,  it  was  made  a  medium  of  communi- 
cation between  the  home  mission  churches  of  the  West 
and  the  giving  churches  of  the  East,  and  its  publication 
was  removed  to  the  office  of  Messrs.  J.  G.  Monfort  &  Co., 
publishers  of  the  Herald  and  Presbyter,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
Their  moderate  charges  and  kindly  assistance  enabled  us 


334  SHELDON  JACKSON 

both  to  continue  its  publication  and  improve  its  quality. 
In  1879,  it  became  the  organ  of  the  newly-formed 
Woman's  Executive  Committee,  and  from  them  re- 
ceived a  large  increase  in  circulation.  In  1880,  it  was 
changed  to  its  present  form,  and  in  1881  to  its  present 
name.  The  editorial  office,  for  the  ten  years  of  its  exist- 
ence, has  been  the  satchel  of  the  proiDrietor,  the  copy  of 
contents  being  mailed  to  the  printing  office  from  wher- 
ever he  happened  to  be  at  the  time.  Consequently,  some 
copies  have  been  prepared  in  Alaska,  others  in  New 
Mexico,  Montana,  Arizona,  Oregon,  New  York,  Utah, 
Illinois,  California,  or  Colorado.  After  mailing  the  copy, 
we  had  no  opportunity  of  revising  the  proof  or  arranging 
the  paper.  And  if  at  any  time  sufficient  copy  was  not 
sent,  the  foreman  of  the  office  would  fill  up  with  his  own 
selections.  In  this  way,  articles  have  been  frequently  in- 
serted that  would  not  have  been  allowed  if  we  could  have 
supervised  the  making-up  of  the  paper.  "We  worked  un- 
der great  disadvantages,  and  the  wonder  is  that  more 
mistakes  were  not  made.  It  was  a  labour  of  love  to  the 
cause,  and  we  did  the  best  we  could  under  the  circum- 
stances. To  the  many  Christian  workers  who  have  sent 
us  words  of  encouragement  and  substantial  assistance,  we 
return  thanks.  The  success  of  the  paper  demonstrated 
the  need  of  an  out-and-out  home  mission  paper.  If  the 
Board  had  had  such  an  organ  the  Boc]<y  Mountain  Pres- 
byterian would  not  have  been  started.  And,  when  started, 
it  was  pushed  to  success,  that  the  Board  might  be  encour- 
aged to  take  a  forward  movement,  and  establish  what  has 
long  been  called  for, — a  wide-awake  paper  of  its  own. 
This  has  now  been  done,  and  it  gives  me  great  pleasure 
to  make  the  Church  a  present  of  the  paper,  its  good- will 
and  subscription  list. 

"(Signed)  Sheldon  Jackson. 
"December,  1881." 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      335 

The  reception  of  this  gift  was  thus  announced  by  the 
secretaries  of  the  Board,  December  8th  : — 


The  Board  of  Home  Missions,  feeling  the  need  of  an  organ 
of  their  own  to  furnish  the  Church  with  the  information  called 
fur  regarding  the  wants  and  prospects  of  their  work,  have 
adopted  the  Rocky  Mountain  Presbyterian  as  theirs.  Dr. 
Jackson,  its  late  editor  and  proprietor,  has  very  generously 
given  the  paper,  with  its  list  of  subscribers,  without  cost  to  the 
Board,  and  retires  from  its  editorship.  The  Board  will  con- 
tinue the  paper  in  an  enlarged  and  improved  form,  under  the 
name  of  the  Presbyterian  Home  Missionary,  holding  itself  re- 
sponsible for  the  views  and  sentiments  expressed  in  the  edi- 
torials, and  as  far  as  possible  in  the  correspondence. 


While  the  secretaries  of  the  Home  Board  assumed  this 
responsibility,  they  were  too  much  overburdened  already 
to  do  justice  to  the  interests  represented  by  this  publica- 
tion, and  hence  it  was  necessary  to  secure  an  assistant  at 
the  outset,  who  could  take  in  the  whole  field  and  make  it 
a  conspicuous  success.  The  man  of  all  others  ^^•hom  they 
regarded  as  specially  qualified  for  this  work  was  its  late 
editor  and  owner  ;  and  him  they  called  from  the  position 
he  had  so  long  held  on  the  frontier  line,  to  serve  the 
Church  and  the  Board  in  this  capacity.  While  this  was 
nominally  the  object  of  his  removal  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  Board,  in  N"ew  York  City,  it  was  understood  that 
he  would  have  the  privilege,  as  opportunity  was  afforded 
him,  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Com- 
mittee, and  also  to  look  after  that  part  of  its  work  which 
it  had  undertaken  at  his  suggestion,  and  was  now  rapidly 
developing,  in  behalf  of  the  natives  of  Alaska.  In  view 
of  the  exceptional  opportunity  tlius  afforded  to  scan  the 
whole  field  from  this  central  watch  tower  behind  the 
lines,  and  the  freedom  it  gave  him  to  exercise  his  gifts  in 
behalf  of  those  who  had  hitherto  looked  to  him  for  help, 


336  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Sheldon  Jackson  accepted  this  call  and  for  a  time  re- 
moved with  his  family  to  the  East. 

The  date  of  his  transfer  to  this  new  department  of 
labour  was  January  1,  1882,  but  for  some  weeks 
previously  he  had  been  at  work  on  the  January  issue  of 
the  paper,  in  anticipation  of  the  change. 

There  were  few  men  at  this  time  who  were  better 
known  throughout  the  Church,  and  his  voice  has  been 
heard  in  every  section  of  the  land.  In  the  prosecution 
of  his  work,  from  1869  to  1882,  he  had  delivered  over 
nineteen  hundred  missionary  addresses  and  had  travelled 
nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  miles.  In  the  vari- 
ous assemblies  of  the  Church,  of  the  National  and  State 
Educational  Associations,  at  public  conventions  and 
schools  of  instruction,  such  as  Chautauqua,  Mohonk, 
Asbury  Park,  Ocean  Grove,  and  Washington  City,  he 
was  honoured  as  an  authority  in  matters  relating  to  the 
vast  territories  he  had  exj^lored.  And  the  plea  which 
he  everywhere  made  for  the  relief  of  the  degraded  and 
perishing  wards  of  the  nation  in  the  Eocky  Mountains  and 
Alaska  stirred  the  hearts  and  awakened  the  sympathies 
of  thousands  who  had  been  lukewarm  or  indifferent. 

His  official  status  at  this  time  is  indicated  in  the  report 
of  a  special  committee  of  the  Board  which  was  adopted 
in  1882  :— 

The  committee  would  respectfully  recommend  that  the  Rev. 
Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  be  commissioned  as  the  "business 
manager"  of  the  Presbyterian  Home  Missionary ;  that  the 
commission  date  from  October  i,  1SS2;  that  his  salary  after 
January  i,  1883,  be  at  the  rate  of  ^2,000  per  annum,  and  that 
the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  be  requested  to  provide 
one-fourth  of  his  salary. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  adjuncts  of  the  mission  at 
Sitka  was  an  industrial  school  for  boys,  which  had  been 
opened  in  an  abandoned  building  belonging  to  the  gov- 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      337 

ernmeat,  in  November,  1880.     This  school  was  burned 
to  the  ground  on  the  24th  of  January,  1882. 

It  was  the  first  home  of  its  kind  for  the  Indian  bovs  of 
Alaska,  and  several  of  the  young  lads,  who  had  enjoyed 
its  privileges,  joined  in  a  request  to  the  Home  Board, 
with  the  missionaries  and  some  of  the  influential  residents 
of  Sitka,  for  its  rebuilding  as  soon  as  possible.  This 
request  was  given  wide  publicity  by  Dr.  Jackson,  and 
when  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  promptly  de- 
cided to  undertake  the  work  of  rebuilding,  he  ' '  took  the 
rostrum"  on  their  behalf,  and  by  the  first  of  August  fol- 
lowing had  secured  for  this  purpose  the  sum  of  $5,000. 
With  this  in  hand,  he  set  out  on  his  fourth  missionary 
iourney  to  Alaska.  On  his  arrival  at  Sitka,  in  the  early 
days  of  September,  he  selected  a  new  location  for  the 
building  on  a  desirable  i)lot  of  ground,  donated  for  this 
purpose  by  his  friend,  John  G.  Brady,  and  supervised 
its  erection.  While  the  location  was  an  ideal  one,  on  a 
bluff,  thirty  feet  above  high  tide,  the  surface  of  the 
ground  was  covered  with  stumi)s,  and  it  required  the 
work  of  one  hundred  natives  for  many  days  to  remove 
the  stumps  and  grade  the  land.  Some  months  before, 
lumber  had  been  ordered  at  the  nearest  sawmill — 175 
miles  away — but  at  the  last  moment  information  came 
that  the  mill  had  broken  down  and  that  no  lumber  could 
be  expected  from  it  for  at  least  a  year.  Learning  that 
the  winter  before  a  large  cannery,  six  miles  north  of 
Sitka,  had  been  destroyed  by  the  crushing  in  of  its  roof 
with  a  heavy  fall  of  snow.  Dr.  Jackson  purchased  the 
wrecked  building  as  it  lay  on  the  rocks,  a  tangled, 
broken,  splintered  mass,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr. 
Brady,  at  once  organized  a  large  force  of  natives,  camped 
out  at  the  wreck,  rescued  and  assorted  such  lumber  as 
was  worth  saving  and  tlien  rafted  it  down  the  coast  to 
Sitka  and  erected  the  new  building.     It  was  50  x  100  feet 


338  SHELDON  JACKSON 

in  dimensions  and  three  stories  high,  including  an 
attic. 

In  the  supervision  of  this  work,  Dr.  Jackson  was  on 
the  ground  many  days  for  twelve  hours  a  day.  At  this 
season  of  the  year,  the  rains  at  Sitka  are  almost  continu- 
ous, pleasant  days  being  the  exception,  and  most  of  the 
time  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  change  his  dripping 
garments  at  noon,  just  before  dinner,  and  again  before 
supper,  at  the  close  of  the  day.  As  winter  drew  on,  he 
sometimes  had  a  force  of  200  men  at  work. 

Upon  several  occasions,  the  commanding  officer  of  the 
United  States  Steamer,  Jamestown,  at  anchor  in  the  har- 
bour, sent  fiftj^  or  more  marines  ashore  with  their  officers, 
to  help  in  roofing  the  house.  Thus  the  building  erected 
from  the  fragments  of  a  wrecked  salmon  cannery  in  the 
midst  of  the  rainy  season  was  at  length  completed  and 
has  served  as  a  "  Home  "  for  the  mission  family  at  Sitka, 
and  one  hundred  scholars  of  both  sexes  from  that  date 
(1882)  until  the  present  time.  The  entire  cost  was  about 
$7,000. 

During  the  summer  of  1883,  Dr.  Jackson  entered  into 
a  contract  with  the  officials  of  the  United  States  Post-Office 
Department  to  supply  the  stations  at  Haines,  Shakan, 
Klawack,  and  Howkan  with  a  monthly  mail,  to  be 
carried  by  Indians  in  canoes.  This  was  the  first  mail 
service  established  in  Alaska,  between  the  stations  on,  or 
near,  the  coast.  But  for  this  timely  mode  of  intercom- 
munication the  Board  would  have  been  obliged  to  give 
up  its  more  remote  stations.  Thus  in  various  ways  this 
early  and  constant  friend  of  Alaska  found  time,  in  the 
midst  of  pressing  cares,  to  strengthen  and  develop  the 
good  work  already  begun  within  its  borders.  On  his 
return  to  the  East,  he  laboured  earnestly,  as  he  had 
opportunity,  to  arouse  the  authorities  at  Washington  to 
a  sense  of  their  obligations  towards  its  needy  and  de- 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      339 

pendent  people.  By  correspondence  and  personal  inter- 
views, he  secured  the  cooperation  and  support  of  such 
able  advocates  as  Joseph  Cook,  Wendell  Phillips,  Presi- 
dent Bicknell,  of  the  National  Educational  Association  ; 
United  States  Senators  Harrison,  Teller,  Joseph  R. 
Hawley  ;  and  Eepresentatives  James,  Johnson,  and  Ellis. 
Benjamin  Harrison  was  a  warm  j)ersoual  friend,  as  well 
as  a  wise  and  judicious  advocate,  and,  to  his  influence 
mainly,  as  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories, the  long  desired  legislation  and  appropriations  to 
carry  it  out  were  eventually  secured.  Dr.  Jackson  also 
appeared  before  committees  of  the  Forty-sixth,  Forty- 
seventh  and  Forty-eighth  Congresses,  and  i)leaded  his 
cause  in  person. 

In  this  aggressive  campaign,  he  enlisted  the  sympa- 
thies and  secured  the  cooperation  of  active  men  and 
women  in  the  various  churches,  missionary  societies,  and 
educational  associatious  of  the  country.  In  his  re^iort 
for  1883,  the  Commissioner  of  Education  says  : — 

Dr.  Jackson  held  public  meetings  in  many  of  the  leading 
cities  and  many  of  the  prominent  towns  from  the  Pacific  to  the 
Atlantic,  delivering  from  1878  to  1884  about  nine  hundred 
addresses  upon  Alaska.  On  March  23,  1882,  he  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Department  of  Superintendence  of  the 
National  Educational  Association,  which  was  printed  by  this 
Bureau,  in  Circular  of  Information  No.  2,  1882.  Of  this  cir- 
cular, three  editions  have  been  called  for,  making  an  aggregate 
of  60,000  copies. 

During  the  summer  of  1883,  he  visited  the  twenty-second 
annual  meeting  of  the  National  Educational  Association  of  the 
United  States,  the  second  National  Educational  Assembly,  and 
the  State  Teachers'  Association  of  Vermont,  New  Hampshire, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut,  each  of  which  passed  strong 
resolutions  asking  Congress  to  provide  a  school  system  for 
Alaska.  Through  these  meetings,  the  teachers  whom  they 
represented  became  interested,  and  thousands  of  petitions,  scat- 
tered from  Maine  to  Texas  and  from  Florida  to  Oregon,  were 


340  SHELDON  JACKSON 

sent  to  congressmen  asking  for  schools  for  Alaska.  He  also 
secured  the  hearty  cooperation  of  the  missionary  societies  of 
the  Baptist,  Methodist,  Congregational,  Episcopal,  Moravian, 
and  Presbyterian  Churches. 


In  the  summer  of  1883,  all  the  missionaries  at  Sitka, 
Fort  Wrangell,  and  the  stations  in  the  Chilcat  country, 
eleven  in  number,  united  in  a  request  to  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions,  for  the  appointment  of  Sheldon  Jackson 
as  superintendent  of  missions  in  Alaska.  This  would 
have  been  an  acceptable  api^ointment  to  him  at  the  time, 
for  his  heart  was  in  the  work  along  the  frontier  line,  but 
the  Board  declined  to  make  it. 

In  the  spring  of  1884,  he  was  tendered  an  appointment 
for  service  as  ' '  Missionary  to  the  church  and  congrega- 
tion" of  Sitka,  Alaska,  dating  from  April  1st.  This  he 
accepted,  and  from  this  date  severed  his  connection  with 
the  Presbyterian  Home  Missionary. 

Technically,  the  designation  on  the  face  of  this  ap- 
pointment limited  his  field  to  one  location,  and  gave  him 
no  official  authority  to  act  for  the  country  as  a  whole,  but 
this  did  not  hinder  him  from  labouring  zealously,  as  be- 
fore, in  behalf  of  all  its  educational  and  religious  inter- 
ests. The  General  Assembly  of  the  same  year  adopted 
the  following  complimentary  statement  with  respect 
to  the  management  of  the  paper  during  his  term  of 
service  : — 


Gladly  recognizing  the  skillful  management  which  has  so 
soon  secured  to  the  Presbyterian  Home  Missionary  a  cir- 
culation of  28,000  copies,  and  so  certainly  rendered  it  necessary 
to  every  one  that  would  have  an  intelligent  conception  of  our 
home  mission  work,  we  believe  that  it  can  now  be  made  self- 
supporting.  Accordingly,  the  Board  is  instructed  to  advance 
its  minimum  subscription  price  to  fifty  cents  per  annum. 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      341 

This  assembly,  iu  one  of  its  sessions,  "declared  it  to  be 
the  purpose  of  the  Church  to  call  the  work  withiu  the 
bouuds  of  the  United  States  'Home  Work,'  and  to  give 
to  the  Foreign  Board  the  charge  of  the  work  outside  this 
boundary." 

On  its  face,  this  seems  to  be  a  very  simple  solution  of  a 
problem  growing  out  of  the  advance  of  the  Church  into 
new  and  hitherto  unoccupied  territory,  but  there  have 
been  few  cxuestions  at  issue  in  relation  to  its  activities 
which  have  so  sadly  disturbed  its  peace  or  alienated  the 
•  minds  of  its  faithful  workers.  This  decision,  which  was 
reached  after  more  than  a  decade  of  unnecessary  strife  and 
contention,  led  to  the  transfer  of  all  the  work  among  the 
Indians  to  the  Home  Board  and  amply  justified  the  far- 
seeing  policy  which  was  advocated  by  Sheldon  Jackson 
from  the  first.  The  efficient  agency  to  which  was  com- 
mitted the  great  work  outside  the  borders  of  the  United 
States,  found  ample  scope,  from  the  date  of  this  transfer, 
for  all  its  activities  and  energies  in  its  world-wide  field  ; 
while  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee,  with  its  ever- 
increasing  force  of  labourers,  ministered  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  ignorant  and  needy  among  the  exceptional 
population,  which,  by  the  ordering  of  God's  providence, 
had  now  come  within  the  bounds  and  under  the  care  of 
the  several  presbyteries  and  synods.  From  this  date, 
also,  it  assumed  the  responsibility  and  rose  to  the  dignity 
of  a  work  of  continental  magnitude^,  in  behalf  of  the 
spiritually  destitute  of  all  races,  nationalities,  and  shades 
of  colour  within  the  uttermost  borders  of  our  national 
domain. 

The  church  of  Sitka,  temporarily  under  the  care  of  Mr. 
Alonzo  E.  Austin,  a  ruling  elder  who  was  active  in  evan- 
gelistic work,  was  visited  with  a  remarkable  revival  of 
religion  during  the  winter  and  spring  of  1884,  and,  as  a 
result,  about  fifty  persons,  including  nearly  all  the  older 


342  SHELDON  JACKSON 

pupils  of  the  school,  were  brought  to  Christ.  This  en- 
couraging situation  and  the  granting  of  Dr.  Jackson's  re- 
quest about  the  same  time,  for  an  appropriation  of  115,000 
from  the  government  of  the  United  States,  to  be  expended 
in  the  enlargement  of  the  industrial  school  at  Sitka  were 
doubtless  determining  factors  in  the  acceptance  of  the  ap- 
pointment to  the  church  and  congregation  at  that  j)lace. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1884,  the  House  of  Eepresentatives 
passed  the  Senate  bill  providing  a  civil  government  for 
Alaska.  It  was  signed  by  President  Arthur  three  days 
later. 

In  this  enactment,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  was 
directed  to  make  needful  and  proper  provision  for  the 
education  of  children  of  school  age  in  the  territory,  with- 
out reference  to  race,  until  such  time  as  permanent  provi- 
sion should  be  made  for  the  same,  and  the  sum  of  $25, 000 
was  aj)prox)riated  for  this  purpose. 

Thus,  after  seventeen  years  of  neglect  and  delay,  a  lim- 
ited form  of  territorial  government  was  provided  for 
Alaska,  and  an  apportionment  far  below  the  amount  in- 
dicated by  the  framers  of  the  bill,  but  still  sufiflcieut  for  a 
beginning,  if  faithfully  administered,  was  made  for  the 
establishment  of  a  public  school  system.  Happily  for  the 
interests  of  this  far-away  northland,  Sheldon  Jackson  was, 
at  length,  appointed  to  inaugurate  the  work  and  adminis- 
ter this  fund.  This  appointment  was  not  made,  however, 
until  nearly  a  year  after  the  passage  of  the  enabling  act. 
Meanwhile,  he  looked  after  the  interests  of  the  congre- 
gation at  Sitka,  which,  as  j^et,  was  in  a  formative  shape, 
and  needed  a  leader  of  experience  and  good  judgment. 
Thither  he  removed  with  his  family  during  the  summer 
and  was  enrolled  with  the  missionary  force  of  the  country. 

"With  a  view  to  the  awakening  of  interest  in  Southeast- 
ern Alaska  and  its  missions,  Dr.  Jackson  accepted  an  ap- 
pointment  as   general  manager    of   a   large  excursion, 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT       343 

which  was  made  up  mainly  from  delegates  in  attendance 
upon  the  National  Educational  Society,  which  met  that 
year  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  July  15th-18th.  With  his 
usual  promptness  and  accuracy  of  detail  all  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  comfort  and  safe  conduct  of  the  party  were 
made  beforehand.  The  excursion  party,  which  he  accom- 
panied on  the  journey  to  Alaska,  included  visits  to  the  in- 
teresting Christian  village  of  Metlahkatlah,  in  British  Co- 
lumbia, and  many  points  of  special  interest  in  Southeastern 
Alaska.  Dr.  Bicknell,  the  president  of  the  association, 
thus  expresses  his  appreciation  of  this  favour  at  a  later 
date  : — 

Boston,  Mass.,  December  3,  1884. 
My  Dear  Dr.  Jackson  :  — 

Alaska  is  in  my  thoughts  to-night  as  I  am  refreshing  my 
mind  for  two  lectures  next  week  on  "The  Land  of  the  Mid- 
night Sun,"  and  when  Alaska  comes  up  you  are  also  uppermost, 
for  you  have  done  more  than  all  others  to  bring  the  land  and 
its  people  to  the  thought  of  the  world.  Our  trip  was  a  wonder- 
ful one,  and  I  shall  never  sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  to 
you,  that  you  opened  the  way  and  led  the  enterprise  to  such  a 
successful  issue  last  summer.  All  were  delighted  with  the 
journey,  and  have  the  most  enthusiastic  words  for  all  that  was 
seen  and  heard.  How  much  I  admire  your  self-sacrifice  for 
that  far-off  people.     .     .     . 

Sincerely  yours, 

T.  W.  Bicknell. 

On  the  7th  of  September,  Sheldon  Jackson,  assisted  by 
the  Eev.  Eugene  S.  Willard  and  Mr.  Alouzo  E.  Austin, 
organized  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Sitka,  with  a 
communicant  membership  of  forty-four  natives,  received 
on  confession  of  faith,  and  five  by  letter  from  the  families 
residing  in  Sitka.  At  this  time,  Mr.  Austin,  who 
had  been  labouring  here  as  an  evangelist  with  much  ac- 
cej)tance,  was  elected,  ordained,  and  installed  as  a  ruling 
elder.     On  the  14th  of  the  same  month,  the  boarding- 


344  SHELDON  JACKSON 

school  for  girls  at  Fort  Wraugell  was  transferred  to  Sitka, 
by  direction  of  the  Home  Board,  and  Mrs.  McFarlaud 
joined  its  teaching  force,  bringing  with  her  twenty-four 
pupils. 

On  the  14th  of  the  same  month.  Dr.  Jackson  assisted 
in  the  organization  of  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska  at  Sitka, 
and  was  enrolled  with  that  body  on  presentation  of  a  let- 
ter of  dismissal  from  the  Presbytery  of  Santa  Fe.  At 
this  meeting,  Mr.  Austin  was  licensed  and  ordained  as  an 
evangelist.  The  working  force  at  this  date — seven  years 
after  the  commencement  of  missionary  work  at  Fort 
Wrangell — was  reported  as  seven  missionaries  and  sixteen 
missionary  teachers,  located  at  six  regular  stations  in 
Southeastern  Alaska.  The  number  of  scholars  in  the  in- 
dustrial and  day-schools  was  estimated  at  five  hundred  and 
twenty-five.  In  view  of  the  difficulties  encountered  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  work,  in  this  formative  period,  the 
results,  as  thus  summed  nj^  in  church  and  school,  were 
grandly  encouraging. 

Eeferring  to  this  work,  in  his  lecture  course  in  Boston, 
in  the  spring  of  1885,  soon  after  Dr.  Jackson  received  his 
appointment  as  General  Agent  of  Education  in  Alaska, 
Joseph  Cook  said  : — 

Look  at  Alaska  !  For  twenty  years  a  frozen  foundling  on 
our  Western  borders,  we  did  less  for  her  than  Russia  accom- 
plished. The  Presbyterian  Church,  as  represented  by  that 
heroic  missionary,  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson,  has  reached  out  its 
powerful  arms  to  the  forbidding  regions  of  the  North.  After 
most  mischievous  and  inexcusable  delays  on  the  part  of  Con- 
gress, there  has  been  secured,  chiefly  through  Dr.  Jackson's  in- 
fluence, a  loose  territorial  organization  for  Alaska.  Dr.  Jack- 
son assists  in  administering  it.  He  has  obtained  a  large  ap- 
propriation for  schools.  At  the  present  moment,  the  Indians  of 
Alaska,  occupying  a  territory  as  large  as  that  of  the  American 
Union  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Gulf  States,  are 
almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 


EXTENSION  AND  DEVELOPMENT      345 

Other  denominations  have  done  something  in  Alaska ;  but  the 
greatest  efforts  have  been  made  by  the  denomination  I  have 
named,  and  which  I  hope  will  be  allowed  to  carry  out  its  own 
enterprises  without  much  rivalry. 


The  above  mentioned  aijpointment  was  made  under  the 
administration  of  President  Cleveland,  on  the  11th  of 
April,  1885.  With  this  new  phase  of  labour  and  its  re- 
sults, we  shall  deal  in  the  chapters  which  follow. 


XVI 

THE  FORMATIVE  PERIOD  OF  EDUCATIONAL 

WORK  IN  ALASKA 

"In  recent  days,  Great  Britain  has  had  its  Duncan,  France  its 
Petitot,  and  the  United  Statee  its  Jackson,  whose  evangelizing 
labours,  acting  through  the  more  successful  method — that  of  inculcat- 
ing civilization  and  helpfulness — are  a  part  of  the  glory  of  this  time. ' ' 

— Gen.  A.  W.  Gfreely. 

THE  enactment  which  gave  to  Alaska  a  restricted 
form  of  civil  government,  dating  from  May  17, 
1884,  created  the  offices  of  governor  and  judge, 
at  a  salary  of  $3,000  and  of  district  attorney,  marshal  and 
clerk  at  a  salary  of  $2,500  each.  These  officers  were 
appointed  by  the  President  and  soon  after  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  their  several  appointments  at  Sitka,  the 
designated  seat  of  government.  An  appropriation  of 
$25, 000  was  made,  in  connection  with  the  act  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  civil  government,  for  the  education  of 
children  of  school  age  within  the  limits  of  the  territory, 
but  the  administration  of  this  fund  and  the  duty  of  mak- 
ing needful  provision  for  the  inauguration  of  an  adequate 
school  system,  was  laid  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
There  seems  to  have  been  some  uncertainty  as  to  whether 
this  work  was  to  be  done  under  direction  of  the  Indian 
Bureau,  or  through  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  and 
several  months  elasped  before  a  definite  decision  was 
reached.  On  the  2d  day  of  March,  1885,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  assigned  this  work  to  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, and  directed  its  commissioner  to  prepare  a  plan  of 
operation  and  initiate  such  steps  as  should  be  necessary  to 

346 


U  S  OtOLOeiCALSURVEY 


BULLETIN    NO  218      PL. I 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      347 

secure  adequate  provision  for  tlie  education  of  all  the 
children  of  school  age,  without  respect  to  race  or  nation- 
ality, in  Alaska. 

General  John  Eaton,  the  Commissioner  of  Education, 
at  this  time,  had  laboured  zealously  for  years  to  secure 
this  legislation  for  Alaska,  and  year  by  year  had  recom- 
mended an  approjiriation  for  the  education  of  its  native 
children.  He  made  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Jackson  in 
1878,  and  gave  him  all  the  assistance  in  his  power  in  his 
efforts  to  rouse  the  nation  and  its  representatives  in  Con- 
gress to  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  enlightenment  of 
its  ignorant  and  debased  population.  When  it  was  de- 
cided, therefore,  that  an  Alaskan  division  should  be  es- 
tablished in  the  Bureau  of  Education,  this  noble  and 
steadfast  friend  of  the  cause  had  no  hesitation  in  recom- 
mending Sheldon  Jackson  as  the  best  man  within  the 
range  of  his  knowledge  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  it. 
The  salary  allowed  for  the  incumbent  of  the  ofiice  at  this 
time  was  $1,200. 

The  peculiar  fitness  of  this  appointment,  which  was 
made  on  the  11th  of  April,  and  was  accepted  without 
hesitation,  is  hai)pily  expressed  in  a  congratulatory  note 
sent  to  Dr.  Jackson  by  the  Hon.  T.  A.  Johnson,  then 
member  of  Congress  from  the  state  of  New  York  : — 

House  of  Representatives, 
Washington,  D.  C,  May  i,  1885. 
Mv  Dear  Sir: — 

In  view  of  the  very  great  and  general  interest  manifested 
in  regard  to  everything  pertaining  to  Alaska,  I  feel  like  con- 
gratulating you  on  the  reward  you  are  now  receiving  for  your 
long,  unwearied,  and  very  efficient  labours  on  behalf  of  that 
distant  portion  of  our  country.  When  I  remember  your  faith- 
ful work  for  Alaska  while  you  were  superintendent  of  Presby- 
terian missions  for  the  Rocky  Mountain  territories,  your  able 
and  successful  efforts  to  arouse  public  sentiment  in  behalf  of  a 
government  and  schools  for  Alaska,  and  your  addresses  all  over 


348  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  country  on  the  subject,  taken  with  what  has  come  under  my 
personal  observation  while  a  member  of  the  Forty-eighth  Con- 
gress and  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Territories  and  on  the 
sub-committee  having  in  charge  the  bill  proposing  a  civil 
government  for  Alaska,  I  say  without  any  hesitation  that  in  my 
humble  judgment,  to  you,  more  than  to  any  other  one  man  or 
agency,  is  due  the  success  thus  far  attained  in  the  direction  of 
the  establishing  of  a  form  of  government,  and  the  improve- 
ment in  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Alaska.  I  took, 
from  the  first,  a  special  interest  in  the  bill  before  our  committee 
because  of  the  information  you  furnished  and  your  connection 
with  the  matter.  Please  accept  my  sincere  congratulations  on 
your  appointment  as  the  first  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion for  Alaska,  and  believe  me, 

Yours  very  truly, 
F.  A.  Johnson, 
Member  of  Cofigress,  Twenty-first  District,  New  York. 
Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D. 

There  are  two  noteworthy  things  in  connection  with 
this  appointment,  viz.  :  The  smallness  of  the  salary,  com- 
pared with  the  allowance  for  other  officials  appointed  by 
the  government,  and  the  extraordinary  difficulties  con- 
nected with  the  inauguration  and  development  of  the 
work.  The  first  may  be  accounted  for  on  the  assumj)tion 
that  Dr.  Jackson  was  expected  to  carry  on  his  missionary 
work,  under  the  direction  of  the  Home  Board,  in  connection 
with  the  school  work.  This  was  in  keeping  with  the 
policy  of  the  Indian  Bureau,  which  for  years  had  utilized 
the  labours  of  missionary  agents  of  the  several  denomina- 
tions in  building  up  a  school  system  among  the  grossly 
ignorant  and  depraved  natives  on  the  reservations  or  in 
the  newer  sections  of  the  Western  territories.  Some  of  the 
difficulties  connected  with  the  administration  of  this  serv- 
ice may  be  inferred  from  statements  already  made,  but 
Dr.  Jackson  had  been  long  enough  in  Alaska  to  know  that 
the  task  assigned  him  was  as  great,  if  not  greater,  than 
anything  he  had  heretofore  attempted.     It  was  a  problem 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      349 

peculiar  to  itself,  with  elements  of  difficulty  which  be- 
longed to  the  exceptional  physical  features  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  nomadic  inclinations  of  its  inhabitants. 

Within  its  limits,  which  covered  a  surface  equal  to  one- 
sixth  of  the  area  of  the  United  States, — a  stretch  of  1,400 
miles  in  a  direct  line  from  north  to  south,  and  2,200  from 
east  to  west, — there  were  foui-  districts  or  distinct  groups 
of  settlements,  far  removed,  and  practically  isolated  from 
each  other,  for  lack  of  the  ordinary  means  of  intercom- 
munication. The  Sitkan  district  in  the  southeast  section 
was  the  most  familiar  and  easily  reached.  Westward  of 
this  district,  across  a  stormy  waste  of  waters,  lies  the 
Aleutian  group  of  islands.  To  Kadiak,  the  nearest  point 
in  this  group,  the  distance  from  Sitka  is  633  miles. 
From  Uualaska,  in  the  southern  section  of  this  district, 
is  1,250  miles.  This  was  the  farthest  outpost  of  civiliza- 
tion looking  westward  to  the  coast  of  Japan,  3,000  miles 
distant ;  while  to  the  south  the  nearest  church  or  school 
was  on  the  Island  of  Hawaii,  2,000  miles  away. 

J^'orthward,  some  800  miles  distant,  along  the  western 
coast  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  extending 
from  St.  Michael  to  Point  Barrow,  there  are  several 
grouj)S  of  the  In  unit  or  Eskimo  population  of  Alaska, 
constituting  another  district  and  another  distinct  race  of 
people. 

The  fourth  district  was  that  portion  of  the  interior  sec- 
tion of  the  country  accessible  along  the  course  of  its  navi- 
gable rivers,  the  largest  portion  of  which  was  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Yukon  and  its  tributaries.  To  reach  Anvik, 
one  of  the  mission  stations  on  this  river,  the  nearest  route 
was  by  the  monthly  mail  steamer  from  Sitka  to  Juneau, 
166  miles,  thence  by  canoe  manned  by  natives,  to  the 
head  of  Dyea  Inlet,  about  100  miles.  From  this  point 
the  route  led  over  a  dangerous  mountain  trail  for  twenty- 
five  miles,  used  only  for  foot  passengers, — whose  suj)plie8 


360  SHELDON  JACKSON 

■were  carried  by  bands  of  natives, — to  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Yukon.  Here  the  problem  of  transportation  for 
the  remainder  of  the  journey,  a  distance  of  1,750  miles, 
could  readily  be  solved  by  constructing  a  raft,  and  float- 
ing down  the  stream. 

To  reach  the  northernmost  portions  of  the  Arctic  settle- 
ments, where  in  the  next  decade  schools  were  established, 
a  region  as  far  north  from  Sitka  as  the  state  of  Florida  is 
from  Maine,  was  only  possible  in  the  summer  season  by 
taking  passage  on  a  vessel  of  the  whaling  fleet,  or  in  a 
government  revenue  cutter,  sent  to  this  region  on  special 
service. 

Other  difficulties  scarcely  less  formidable  were  antici- 
pated, or  experienced  in  chartering  vessels  year  by  year 
to  carry  teachers  and  supplies  ;  in  finding  properly  quali- 
fied instructors  for  regions  so  remote  and  uninviting  ;  in 
the  establishing  of  schools  where  the  schoolhouses  and 
teachers'  residences  had  to  be  erected  from  material  to  be 
transported  from  1,500  to  4,500  miles;  in  instructing  a 
people  morally  depraved,  and  for  the  most  part  pagan 
in  life  and  worshii)  :  who  were  too  ignorant  to  appreciate 
the  advantages  of  a  helpful  education,  and  who  in  most 
of  the  locations  indicated  had  no  knowledge  of  the  Eng- 
lish language,  the  laws  of  health,  the  sacreduess  of  home 
ties,  or  the  refinements  and  amenities  of  civilized  life. 

To  the  magnitude  of  the  work,  as  thus  outlined,  and 
the  special  difficulties  environing  it,  was  added  the  com- 
plication arising  from  the  lack  of  funds  to  carry  it  on 
efficiently,  and, — more  discouraging  than  all  besides, — 
the  active  opposition  of  some  of  the  recently  appointed 
government  officials,  including  the  governor,  the  United 
States  judge,  district  attorney  and  marshal,  who  from  the 
date  of  their  arrival  in  the  territory  antagonized  the  work 
of  the  missionaries  and  sought  to  belittle  their  influence 
among  the  people.     Their  conduct  in  this  respect  was  in 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      351 

striking  contrast  with  the  official  acts  of  the  commanders 
of  the  naval  vessels,  who,  up  to  the  date  of  the  inaugura- 
tion of  a  civil  government  had  represented  the  majesty  of 
law  at  Sitka  and  in  other  ports  where  for  the  time  they 
were  stationed.  In  every  way  that  was  open  to  them, 
these  noble  men  aided  the  missionaries  in  their  efforts  to 
enlighten  and  elevate  the  degraded  natives  of  Alaska, 
and  to  protect  the  heli^less  young  women  who  ofttimes 
fled  to  them  to  escape  from  parents  and  friends  who  were 
about  to  sell  them  to  evil  men  for  immoral  purposes. 
These  were  the  days  when  the  spoils  system  was  in  vogue, 
when  political  debts  were  paid  by  the  appointment  of 
men  to  public  offices,  without  regard  to  character  or 
special  fitness  ;  and  there  were  many  i)rodigal  sons  who 
sought  this  far  country  that  they  might  have  more  freedom 
from  wholesome  restraints  j  and  more  opportunities  to 
spend  their  substance  in  riotous  living.  Between  this 
class,  whether  in  high  or  low  life,  and  the  Christian  ele- 
ment which  elevated  the  standard  of  purity  and  right- 
eousness there  was,  as  in  every  mission  field  to-day,  a 
conflict  of  interests  and  an  antagonism  of  forces,  which 
can  no  more  be  reconciled  or  merged  than  the  conflict  be- 
tween light  and  darkness,  or  Christ  and  Belial.  At  Sitka, 
the  seat  of  government,  this  antagonism  to  the  missionaries 
and  all  that  they  represented  was  open,  malicious,  and 
manifested  itself  in  frequent  overt  acts.  At  heart,  these  op- 
posers  did  not  desire  to  have  any  part  of  the  school  fund 
devoted  to  the  education  of  the  natives.  The  leaders  in 
the  open  and  public  attacks  which  Avere  made  upon  Dr. 
Jackson  and  the  missionary  force  who  favoured  their  edu- 
cation and  uplifting,  were  the  United  States  Judge,  "Ward 
McAllister,  Jr.,  of  New  York,  and  the  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney,  E.  W.  Haskett,  of  Iowa. 

During  the  winter  of  1884-85,  the  district  attorney  en- 
couraged the  ignorant  and  naturally  jealous  Russian  resi- 


352  SHELDON  JACKSON 

dents  of  Sitka  in  the  belief  that  the  mission  school  was 
absorbing  funds  which  ought  to  be  spent  in  their  inter- 
ests, and  that  the  building  in  which  it  was  housed  was 
located  on  land  to  which  they  had  a  legitimate  claim. 
At  his  instigation,  the  Eussians  applied  for  an  injunction, 
restraining  the  officials  of  the  industrial  school  from 
grading  their  grounds,  erecting  new  buildings,  or  in  any 
way  improving  the  property  which  they  held  on  trust. 
This  injunction  was  granted  at  once  by  Judge  McAllister, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  school  itself  was  sus- 
tained in  part  by  the  Bureau  of  Education,  under  direc- 
tion of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  In  connection  with 
this  movement,  successful  attempts  were  also  made  to 
prejudice  the  natives  against  the  school,  with  a  view  to 
reducing  its  numbers  and  destroying  its  influence.  After 
Dr.  Jackson  had  left  Sitka  for  Washington  City,  on  the 
March  steamer,  with  a  view  to  accex)ting  the  office  of 
General  Agent  of  Education  in  Alaska,  several  overt  acts 
were  attempted,  which  almost  nullified  the  efforts  of  the 
teachers  to  continue  its  sessions  or  maintain  its  discipline. 
When  the  reports  of  these  later  developments  of  oppo- 
sition and  petty  strife  reached  Dr.  Jackson,  in  Washing- 
ton City,  he  at  once  addressed  a  personal  letter  to  Presi- 
dent Cleveland,  setting  forth  the  facts  in  substance,  as 
above  stated,  and  asking  for  such  relief  as  would  enable 
those  who  are  engaged  in  this  work  to  carry  it  on  with- 
out hindrance  or  molestation.  This  letter  bears  date  of 
April  3d,  which  was  eight  days  before  his  appointment  as 
General  Agent  of  Education  for  Alaska.  It  closes  with 
the  following  statement  and  appeal : — 

Through  the  efforts  of  the  district  attorney,  E.  W.  Haskett, 
and  United  States  Interpreter,  George  Kastrimetinoff,  stirring 
up  disaffection  among  the  Indians,  forty-seven  children  were 
taken  out  of  an  industrial  training  school  and  sent  back  to  the 
filth,  superstition,  degradation  and  vice  of  their  former  Indian 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      353 

life.  Thus  an  institution  established  at  a  great  expense  by  a 
religious  denomination,  and  supported  in  part  by  an  annual 
appropriation  of  Congress,  through  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior, is  crippled,  and  the  desire  of  the  government  to  civilize 
the  natives  is  thwarted  by  the  hostility  of  United  States  officers. 

For  seven  years,  earnest  men  and  women  have  been  labour- 
ing in  that  far-off  country  amid  untold  hardships  to  overcome 
native  prejudices  and  secure  the  children  that  they  might, 
through  industrial  education,  be  taken  out  of  the  degraded  con- 
dition of  their  fathers  and  placed  in  that  of  intelligent,  Ameri- 
can citizenship :  and  now  to  see  forty-seven  out  of  the  103  chil- 
dren gathered  in  that  school,  taken  out  in  one  month  by 
drunken  officials,  under  the  guise  of  law,  seems  very  hard  to 
bear. 

And  in  our  distress  we  turn  to  you  for  relief,  asking  that  in 
your  wisdom  you  may  send  us  a  judge  that  will  be  in  sympathy 
with  the  missionary  efforts  of  the  several  churches  in  Alaska ; 
and,  if  not  that,  at  least  with  the  government  in  their  efforts  to 
civilize  the  natives  and  educate  their  children. 


After  making  such  arrangements  as  were  possible  in  a 
brief  space  of  time  at  Washington  for  the  beginning  of 
educational  work  iu  Alaska,  Dr.  Jackson  returned  to  his 
post  of  duty  by  steamer  from  Portland,  reaching  Sitka 
about  the  middle  of  May. 

The  first  regular  term  of  court  ever  held  in  Alaska  was 
opened  during  this  month.  In  anticipation  of  this  event, 
the  district  attorney  had  been  zealously  seeking  for  an 
'*  occasion  against  this  Daniel,"  who,  despite  all  the 
machinations  and  misrepresentations  of  his  enemies,  had 
beeu  favom-ed  by  au  appointment  from  the  government 
which  greatly  extended  his  influence  and  gave  an  official 
sanction  to  the  work  which  he  and  his  associates  had 
ridiculed  and  despised.  In  due  time,  his  fertile  but 
somewhat  muddled  brain  concocted  au  ingenious  arraign- 
ment iu  connection  with  the  building  of  the  industrial 
school,  on  the  strength  of  which  he  hoped  to  convict  him 
of  the  arbitrary  exercise  of  authority,  if  not  of  actual 


354  SHELDON  JACKSON 

crime.  By  skillful  manipulation  of  tlie  grand  jury  he  at 
leugth  secured  the  finding  of  five  indictments  against 
Dr.  Jackson,  one  of  which  was  the  grave  offense  of  asking 
for  a  hearing  before  the  grand  jury.'  This  indictment 
was  summarily  dismissed  by  the  court,  and  the  injunction 
against  work  on  the  school  buildings  was  set  aside,  but 
the  remaining  four  indictments,  the  gravamen  of  which 
was  the  obstructing  of  a  public  highway  with  a  fence, 
certain  buildings,  etc.,  were  placed  on  the  docket  for 
trial.  The  wording  of  this  arraignment,  which  charged 
Sheldon  Jackson  with  ' '  the  crime  of  unlawfully,  illegally, 
wilfully,  maliciously,  and  with  malice,  obstructing  a  cer- 
tain road  or  highway,"  conveys  the  impression  of  a  bur- 
lesque accusation  in  a  moot  court  rather  than  a  bona  fide 
action  in  a  court  of  justice  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

On  the  basis  of  this  absurd  and  puerile  charge,  which  if 
it  had  been  sustained  would  have  been  a  case  for  settle- 
ment in  the  office  of  a  justice  of  the  peace,  a  bench  war- 
rant was  issued  and  the  defendant  was  placed  under 
bonds,  aggregating  $2,000,  to  appear  for  trial  before  the 
November  session  of  the  court.  The  excessive  bail  re- 
quired in  this  case  is  a  noteworthy  feature  of  this  arraign- 
ment, but  in  this,  as  well  as  in  other  matters  relating  to 
this  action,  Dr.  Jackson  meekly  obeyed  the  requirements 
of  the  law  and  in  the  end  proved  himself  to  be  equal  to 
the  occasion. 

Meanwhile,  he  gave  his  attention  to  the  schools  within 
his  reach  in  Southeastern  Alaska.  Special  requests  hav- 
ing been  received  for  an  early  inauguration  of  the  public 
school  system  in  Sitka  and  Juneau,  he  gave  them  his  first 
attention.  In  this  section,  as  already  intimated,  he  had 
a  substantial  basis  for  the  inauguration  of  the  work  in  the 
mission  schools  already  established. 

^  Several  of  these  jurors  were  Eussians,  who  did  not  understand  the 
English  language. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      355 

Referring  to  this  fact  in  his  first  annual  report,  Dr. 
Jackson  says : — 

The  Presbyterian  Church  was  the  first  of  the  American 
churches  to  enter  this  neglected  land.  Finding  no  schools, 
they  established  them  side  by  side  with  their  missions,  propos- 
ing to  furnish  educational  advantages  until  the  general  govern- 
ment should  be  ready  to  do  it.  Therefore,  whenever  the  gov- 
ernment was  ready  to  undertake  the  work  in  any  village  occu- 
pied by  the  Presbyterians,  they  turned  over  their  schools  to  the 
government.  As  they  had  a  body  of  efficient  teachers  already 
on  the  ground,  acclimated,  experienced  in  the  work,  more  or 
less  acquainted  with  the  native  language,  and  possessing  the 
confidence  of  the  people,  it  was  both  more  economical  to  the 
government  and  for  the  best  interests  of  the  schools  that  they 
should  as  far  as  possible  be  reemployed,  which  was  done. 

The  first  public  school  opened  under  the  auspices  of  the 
government  was  at  Juneau,  the  principal  mining  centre 
of  Alaska,  on  the  first  day  of  June.  A  log  carpenter 
shop  was  fitted  up  for  a  schoolroom,  and  the  pupils  were 
placed  in  charge  of  Miss  Mary  B.  Murphy,  an  efficient 
teacher  from  Oregon.  With  the  concurrence  of  the 
United  States  commissioner  a  block  of  land  was  selected 
in  the  centre  of  the  town,  upon  which  to  erect  a  suitable 
building  for  school  purposes,  in  the  near  future. 

On  the  22d  of  June,  a  school  for  the  instruction  of 
white  and  Creole  pupils  was  opened  in  the  centre  of  the 
town  of  Sitka,  then  the  seat  of  government.  In  Novem- 
ber of  the  same  year,  another  school  for  the  education  of 
the  native  children  was  established  in  Sitka.  On  the 
first  day  of  September,  the  Presbyterian  schools  at 
Uoonah,  Fort  Wrangell,  Haines,  and  Howkan,  were 
transferred  to  the  government  and  manned  by  teachers 
secured  by  its  General  Agent  of  Instruction. 

For  lack  of  regular  communication  between  Sitka  and 
Western  Alaska,  Dr.  Jackson  was  unable  to  do  more  for 
that  section  during  this  season  than  to  send  a  Polish  Jew, 


856  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Mr.  Salomon  Eipinsky,  to  TJualaska,  where  a  school  was 
opened  by  him  in  the  month  of  October. 

"When  he  was  about  to  leave  Sitka  by  the  mail  steamer, 
on  the  19th  of  August,  to  establish  the  above  mentioned 
schools  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  an  indignity  was  sprung 
upon  him  which  revealed  to  the  outside  world  the  char- 
acter and  intent  of  the  petty  persecutions  to  which  he  had 
been  subjected.  When  he  went  aboard  the  steamer  at 
this  time,  he  had,  with  his  personal  effects,  an  outfit  of 
school  supplies,  including  desks  and  furniture  for  the 
school  at  Wrangell,  and  charts,  maps,  etc.,  for  the 
schools  at  Hoonah,  Haines,  Juneau,  and  Howkan.  While 
the  vessel  was  receiving  its  cargo  and  passengers  at  the 
landing-place,  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  any  intention 
,to  disturb  Dr.  Jackson  or  prevent  him  from  making  the 
journey  with  those  who  stood  around  him  on  the  deck  ; 
but  when  the  gangplank  was  about  to  be  withdrawn  he 
was  arrested  by  Deputy  Marshal  Sullivan,  and  with  un- 
necessary rudeness  was  hustled  off  the  steamer,  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  passengers,  locked  up  in  a  prison  cell, 
and  denied  even  the  comfort  of  an  empty  box  upon  which 
to  sit  down.^  The  ostensible  reason  for  this  indignity 
was  the  increase  of  Dr.  Jackson's  bail — which  at  the  first 
was  absurdly  excessive  in  view  of  the  offense  charged, — 
but  this  could  easily  have  been  done  at  any  time  on  the 
morning  preceding  the  sailing  of  the  vessel  without  the 
necessity  for  making  an  arrest.  When  the  steamer  had 
X)assed  out  of  sight,  Dr.  Jackson  was  taken  before  the 
judge  and  his  bail  bond  increased  to  $3,200.  After  this 
mockery  of  proceedings  in  the  name  of  justice,  he  was  set 
free.  As  there  was  only  one  steamer  southward  each 
month,  the  immediate  purpose  of  the  actors  in  this  out- 

'  The  deputy  marshal  who  made  this  arrest,  a  healthy  young  man 
at  the  time,  was  prostrated  with  typhoid  fever  and  died,  a  few  weeks 
afterwards. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      357 

rage,  the  detention  of  Dr.  Jackson  at  Sitka,  was  accom- 
plished. This  studied  indignity  was  witnessed  by  a 
number  of  tourists,  some  of  whom  were  lawyers  and 
ruling  elders  connected  with  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  their  report  to  the  officials  of  the  Home  Board  and 
to  the  public  in  general  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation. 
On  learning  the  facts,  which  were  laid  before  him  at 
Washington  by  a  special  committee  appointed  by  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  President  Cleveland  promptly 
removed  all  the  officials  who  were  connected  with  this 
unseemly  antagonism  to  the  school  work,  including  the 
governor,  United  States  marshal,  and  district  attorney. 
As  soon  thereafter  as  it  could  be  done  without  detriment 
to  the  service,  he  also  removed  Judge  McAllister.  The 
return  of  the  steamer,  about  a  month  later,  brought  the  new 
officials  to  take  the  places  of  those  who  had  been  removed. 

The  new  United  States  District  Attorney,  Col.  M.  D. 
Ball,  by  direction  of  the  President  gave  early  attention 
to  the  indictments  pending  against  Sheldon  Jackson,  and 
at  a  session  of  the  court  at  which  the  recently  appointed 
district  judge,  the  Honourable  Edward  J.  D.  Dawne, 
presided,  the  case  was  presented  for  trial.  After  the 
reading  of  the  indictments,  the  court  ordered  the  pro- 
ceedings to  be  dismissed. 

The  setting  aside  of  these  indictments  and  the  removal 
of  the  offending  officials  ended  this  series  of  petty  perse- 
cutions in  Alaska.  A  few  weeks  afterwards  the  ex- 
district  attorney,  E.  W.  Haskell,  while  on  a  drunken 
spree,  was  thrown  from  a  railway  car  in  motion,  and  was 
instantly  killed. 

The  bitter  and  uncompromising  enmity  of  the  other 
officials  who  had  been  dei)Osed  did  not  end  with  the 
settlement  of  the  conflict  in  Alaska,  but  was  now  trans- 
ferred to  Washington  City.  With  the  backing  of  power- 
ful friends  and  associates  in  New  York  City,  a  determined 


358  SHELDON  JACKSON 

effort  was  made  to  liave  the  Senate  disapprove  the  ap- 
pointment of  Judge  Dawne  and  reinstate  Mr.  McAllister. 
To  accomplish  this  end,  and  also  to  vent  their  spite  upon 
the  one  whom  they  regarded  as  the  cause  of  their  j^olit- 
ical  downfall,  petitions  were  circulated  in  Alaska,  and 
also  in  the  East,  asking  for  his  removal,  and  libelous 
articles  impeaching  his  ability  and  defaming  his  char- 
acter were  published  in  some  of  the  influential  papers  of 
the  country.  One  of  these  publications  which  appeared 
in  the  columns  of  the  New  York  World,  March  1,  1886, 
was  so  vindictive  in  its  spirit  that  it  failed  to  impress  the 
sober  and  more  intelligent  classes  whom  its  author  sought 
to  influence.  There  were  many  friends  of  Dr.  Jackson, 
however,  among  the  outside  element,  as  well  as  among 
his  own  associates,  who  i^romptly  volunteered  to  make 
sworn  statements  of  facts  in  disapproval  of  the  covert 
insinuations  and  distorted  representations  of  this  over- 
zealous  writer. 

It  seems  appropriate  that  one  of  these  statements,  made 
by  Lieut.  T.  Dix  Bolles,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  who 
was  on  duty  in  Alaskan  waters  during  the  period  re- 
ferred to  in  this  article  should  be  included  in  this 
record : —  * 

WasJiington,  D.  C,  March  5,  1886. 

My  attention  having  been  called  to  the  statement  published 
in  the  edition  of  March  ist,  JVew  York  World,  in  reference  to 
the  removal  of  Judge  McAllister,  which  article  contains  also  a 
fierce  attack  upon  the  reputation  of  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson, 
Educational  Agent  for  Alaska,  said  article  purporting  to  be 
derived  from  the  papers  in  the  case  as  filed  before  your  com- 
mittee, I  desire  to  place  myself  on  record  as  protesting  against 
the  falsity  of  much  therein  stated. 

As  a  naval  officer  on  duty  in  Alaskan  waters  in  188 1-4-5,  ^ 

^  For  other  papers  of  a  similar  character  bearing  on  this  matter,  see 
"Printed  Statement  of  Facts,"  published  by  the  United  States  Gen- 
eral Agent  of  Education  in  Alaska,  Washington,  D.  C,  1886. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      359 

am  able  to  speak  from  personal  knowledge,  and  as  an  outsider 
to  the  issues,  from  an  unbiased  standpoint. 

Up  to  the  time  the  civil  government  relieved  the  Navy  from 
control  of  Alaskan  affairs,  the  schools,  under  charge  of  Dr. 
Jackson,  had  been  steadily  advancing  in  scope  and  usefulness. 
Not  very  long  after — in  the  fall  of  1884 — various  members  of 
the  civil  government,  both  in  their  actions  and  in  their  conver- 
sations with  me,  showed  that  there  was  a  strong  feeling  against 
the  mission  schools  and  their  teachers,  not  simply  against 
Dr.  Jackson,  but  others.  One  went  so  far  as  to  say  '*  he  would 
break  them  up." 

The  district  attorney,  an  intemperate  man,  even  openly  by 
words  incited  the  Russians  and  Indians  to  overt  acts  of  violence 
and  arson. 

The  course  of  Judge  McAllister  in  permitting  a  woman — not 
the  mother  of  the  child — to  take  the  child  away  from  the 
school  where  its  parents  had  placed  it,  was  the  opening  wedge 
for  numbers  of  others  and  led  to  a  loss  of  almost  one-half  of  the 
scholars,  many  of  them  young  girls,  who  represented  to  their 
parents  just  so  much  coin  by  the  sale  of  their  virtue. 

The  law  was  used  as  a  cover  to  screen  personal  animosities, 
and  persistent  efforts  were  made  to  cripple  and  demoralize  the 
schools.  Finally  an  official  act  of  the  court,  so  grossly  brutal 
and  unjust,  was  perpetrated,  that  the  governor  and  marshal, 
who  had  before  been  only  too  glad  to  throw  difficulties  in 
Dr.  Jackson's  way,  came  out  openly  with  their  condemnation, 
saying  that  "such  conduct  was  illegal  and  improper,  passing 
beyond  decency." 

In  regard  to  Dr.  Jackson,  I  can  from  personal  knowledge 
say  that  he  is  zealous  and  earnest  in  his  efforts  for  the  good  of 
the  Indians  and  the  educational  interests  of  Alaska,  and  faith- 
ful in  the  discharge  of  his  duties. 

I  have  found  him  truthful  and  honest,  in  fact,  an  earnest, 
hard-working,  faithful,  Christian  man.     These  virtues  being  the 
antithesis  of  Alaskan  ideas,  naturally  have  produced  bitter  foes. 
Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)      T.  Dix  Bolles, 
Lieut.  U.  S.  Navy,  late  Executive  Officer  U.  S.  S.  Pinta. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  8th  day  of  March, 
A.  D.  1886. 

[seal.]  (Signed)  H.  J.  Ennis, 

Notary  Public,   Washington,  D.  C. 


360  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Governor  Swineford,  the  newly-appointed  executive 
officer  of  the  territory,  had  more  tact  and  good  judgment 
than  his  predecessor  in  office,  but  at  heart  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  work  of  the  Christian  missionaries  or 
their  methods  of  instruction.  His  affinities  were  with 
those  who  traduced  and  misrepresented  Sheldon  Jackson, 
and  it  became  apparent  ere  long  that  he  was  allied  with 
them  in  a  systematic  and  determined  effort  to  secure  his 
removal  from  office.  This  effort  was  continued  with 
wonderful  persistency  of  purpose  throughout  the  admin- 
istration of  President  Cleveland.  It  is  highly  creditable  to 
the  President  and  his  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Lucius  C. 
Lamar,  that  these  efforts,  backed,  as  they  were,  by  men 
and  influences  so  active  and  powerful,  were  as  persistently 
withstood  in  the  interests  of  righteousness  and  fair  deal- 
ing. 

They  had  their  effect,  however,  in  awakening  a  feeling 
of  distrust  as  to  the  importance  of  educational  work, 
and  the  agencies  through  which  it  was  being  carried  on, 
in  Alaska.  Because  of  these  influences,  mainly,  no  ap- 
propriation was  voted  for  the  schools  in  Alaska  in  1885, 
and  it  was  only  through  ceaseless  activity  and  persistent 
effort  on  the  part  of  a  few  brave  spirits,  of  whom  Dr. 
Jackson  was  the  recognized  leader,  that  an  appropriation 
was  secured  for  the  subsequent  years,  during  this  period. 
This  condition  of  affairs  made  it  necessary  for  the  gen- 
eral agent  of  the  Alaska  department  to  be  in  Washing- 
ton City  during  the  sessions  of  Congress.  Inasmuch  as 
this  did  not  interfere  with  active  work  in  his  field,  which 
could  be  carried  on  only  during  the  summer  months,  per- 
mission was  granted  him  to  open  an  office  for  the  transac- 
tion of  business  relating  to  his  department  in  Washington 
City.  Thereafter,  in  accordance  with  this  arrangement, 
he  laid  his  plans  so  as  to  spend  his  summers  in  Alaska 
and  his  winters  in  Washington.     For  two  years  after  his 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA       361 

appointment  as  General  Agent  of  Eilucation  for  Alaska, 
the  Home  Board  withdrew  its  commission  from  Dr.  Jack- 
son, but  afterwards,  at  the  request  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  engaged  to  pay  one-half  of  a  salary  of 
$2,400,  thus  increasing  his  allowance  to  the  amount  of 
$1,200. 

This  mutual  agreement  is  worthy  of  note  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  close  relationship  which  was  recognized,  at 
this  time,  between  the  agents  of  the  missionary  associa- 
tions and  the  superintendents  of  the  government  schools 
among  the  various  Indian  or  aboriginal  tribes  of  the 
country.  It  was  the  policy  inaugurated  by  General 
Grant,  because  he  was  convinced  that  the  work  of  the 
missionary  among  these  wards  of  the  nation  was  the 
basis  for  effective  work  by  the  teacher  of  the  public 
school.  When  he  was  asked  to  make  a  change  in  this 
policy,  by  men  who  had  no  sympathy  with  religious  in- 
struction, he  said,  ^'  If  the  present  policy  towards  the  In- 
dians can  be  improved  in  any  way,  I  will  always  be  ready 
to  receive  suggestions.  I  do  not  believe  our  Creator  ever 
placed  different  races  of  rnen  on  this  earth  with  a  view  to 
having  the  stronger  exert  all  his  energies  in  extermina- 
tion of  the  weaker.  If  any  change  takes  place  in  the  In- 
dian policy  of  the  government  while  I  hold  my  present 
office,  it  will  be  on  the  humanitarian  side  of  the  question." 

This  great  leader  who  had  studied  Indian  life  in  the 
mission  stations  of  the  churches,  as  well  as  on  the  plains, 
could  not  be  diverted  from  his  purpose  by  the  sneer  that 
sectarian  interests  were  dominant  in  the  effort  to  en- 
lighten and  evangelize  the  aborigines  of  the  land.  In 
Alaska,  as  well  as  on  the  reservations,  it  was  the  mission- 
ary who  first  went  down  among  the  degraded,  the  diseased, 
the  besotted  and  benighted  natives  of  the  country,  to 
bring  the  knowledge  of  a  better  way  and  a  better  life.  It 
was  the  missionary  who  first  washed  the  filthy,  clothed 


362  SHELDON  JACKSON 

the  naked,  reformed  the  vicious,  and  gave  the  hand  of 
help  to  the  fallen  ones  :  it  was  the  missionary  who  first 
taught  them  the  use  of  the  English  forms  of  speech  and 
roused  within  their  beclouded  minds  the  desire  and  ambi- 
tion to  study  and  work  as  well  as  pray.  In  Alaska,  as  a 
matter  of  fact, — which  can  be  easily  verified, — it  was  the 
Christian  Church  and  the  Christian  school  which  prepared 
the  way  among  the  native  population  for  the  government 
school  and  the  instruction  it  gave  in  morals  and  good 
citizenship.  Had  the  organization  of  its  school  system 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  sceptics  and  anti- Christian 
opposers,  who  were  eager  to  shape  it,  when  the  salary 
had  become  a  consideration  worth  striving  for,  they  would 
have  found  it  an  impossibility  to  secure  either  teachers  or 
scholars  apart  from  the  centres  of  light  and  influence 
which  had  been  established  by  the  despised  missionary 
and  the  faithful  self-denying  teachers  associated  with  him. 

This  of&cial  correspondence  also  furnishes  a  complete 
refutation  to  the  charge  brought  against  Dr.  Jackson,  at 
a  later  date,  that  he  had  been  for  years  drawing  two 
salaries.  In  Commissioner  Dawson's  letter,  it  is  made 
very  plain  that  he  required  two  parties  to  pay  one  salary 
in  order  that  it  might  be  increased  to  what  was  then  re- 
garded as  a  minimum  living  rate. ' 

"  On  the  strength  of  this  demand  by  the  government," 
writes  Dr.  Jackson,  ' '  the  Board  of  Missions  commenced 
in  1888  to  pay  one-half  of  the  salary,  or  $1,200  annually, 
until  1896,  when  the  increased  expenses  of  living  in 
Washington  required  at  least  a  salary  of  $3, 000.  The 
government  responded  by  raising  their  part  from  $1,500 

'  While  in  Washington  City,  Dr.  Jackson  wrote  to  the  Rev.  John  G. 
Brady,  afterwards  governor  of  the  territory,  on  the  11th  of  February, 
1887: — "I  am  out  of  pocket  every  month  I  hold  the  oiBce  (General 
Agent  of  Education),  but  for  the  present  it  is  necessaryfor  me  to  hold 
on,  or  the  school  work  would  stop." 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      363 

to  $2,000,  and  the  following  year  (1897)  added  another 
$500,  making  their  part  $2,500  annually.  When  this 
was  done,  I  notified  the  Board  of  Missions  that  I  would  no 
longer  need  $1,200  from  them,  but  if  they  would  now 
give  me  $500  per  year  it  would  make  in  the  aggregate 
$3,000,  upon  which  I  could  live  in  a  moderate  way.** 
This  arrangement  which  relieved  the  Board  of  the  larger 
part  of  the  obligation  it  had  assumed,  was  continued  until 
the  spring  of  1907.  At  its  fall  meeting,  in  1906,  the 
Synod  of  Washington,  to  which  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska 
belongs,  endorsed  the  relation  which  had  hitherto  existed 
between  Dr.  Jackson  and  the  Home  Board  and  advised 
its  continuance.  There  were  objections  raised,  however, 
from  other  quarters,  and  the  Board  decided  to  cancel 
the  engagement  after  the  above  mentioned  date. 

While  warmly  attached  to  his  own  branch  of  the  Church, 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  ever  ready  to  cooperate  heart  and 
soul  with  those  of  other  denominations  of  the  Christian 
failh  who  were  labouring,  through  their  several  agencies, 
to  extend  the  growth  and  influence  of  the  kingdom  of 
Clirist.  From  the  very  beginning  of  his  work  in  Alaska, 
he  saw  the  necessity  for  concerted  action  in  the  winning 
of  this  great  northland,  and  in  his  public  presentations 
of  its  misery  and  sore  need  sought  the  cooperation  of  all 
the  agencies  and  denominations  he  could  directly  or  in- 
directly reach.  As  far  back  as  the  year  1880,  when  as 
yet  his  own  church  was  the  only  one  that  actually  occu- 
pied the  field,  a  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  several 
l)rominent  denominations  was  called  at  his  instigation,  in 
New  York  City,  with  the  approval  of  the  senior  secretary 
of  the  Board,  to  discuss  the  situation,  and,  if  the  way 
should  be  clear,  to  map  out  and  apportion  the  field.  Re- 
ferring to  this  event,  which  marked  a  new  departure  in 
the  adjustment  of  home  mission  work.  Dr.  Henry  M. 
Field  says  : — 


364  SHELDON  JACKSON 

A  peculiar  beauty  was  given  to  the  early  missions  in  Alaska, 
in  the  way  that  different  denominations  entered  the  field  and 
worked  together.  This  harmony  was  not  a  happy  accident, 
but  the  result  of  forethought,  and  of  a  purpose  so  high  that  it 
lifted  them  all  above  sectarian  pride  and  ambition.  The  field 
was  so  vast  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  even  to  touch  it 
at  different  points,  except  by  concert  of  action,  in  which  each 
division  in  the  little  missionary  army  should  select  its  particular 
field  of  labour  on  the  islands  or  the  coast.  This  was  the  policy 
of  Sheldon  Jackson,  in  which  he  found  a  strong  supporter  in 
Dr.  Henry  Kendall,  the  secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 
Home  Missions,  who  invited  the  Methodists  and  the  Baptists 
and  the  Episcopalians,  represented  by  their  secretaries,  Dr. 
John  M.  Reid,  Dr.  Henry  M.  Morehouse,  and  Dr.  Alvi  Tabor 
Twing,  to  meet  together  and  talk  it  over.  Dr.  Twing  could 
not  be  present,  but  joined  heartily  in  the  proposed  agreement. 
The  others  came,  but  it  was  a  small  affair  in  outward  appear- 
ance— only  three  secretaries  and  Sheldon  Jackson — ^just  enough 
to  sit  round  a  table ;  but  this  little  company,  meeting  in  an 
upper  room,  was  sufficient  to  inaugurate  a  policy  of  peace,  that, 
if  adopted  on  a  larger  scale,  would  work  for  the  benefit  of  all 
Christendom. 

And  now  I  see  these  four  heads  bending  over  the  little  ta- 
ble, on  which  Sheldon  Jackson  has  spread  out  a  map  of  Alaska. 
For  the  first  time  they  see  its  tremendous  proportions,  as  it 
reaches  over  many  degrees  of  longitude  and  far  up  into  the 
Arctic  circle.  The  allotment  was  made  in  perfect  harmony. 
As  the  Presbyterians  had  been  the  first  to  enter  Southeastern 
Alaska,  all  agreed  that  they  should  retain  it,  untroubled  by  any 
intrusion.  By  the  same  rule,  the  Episcopalians  were  to  keep 
the  valley  of  the  Yukon,  where  the  Church  of  England,  fol- 
lowing in  the  track  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  had  planted 
its  missions  forty  years  before.  The  island  of  Kadiak,  with  the 
adjoining  region  of  Cook's  Inlet,  made  a  generous  portion  for 
the  Baptist  brethren  ;  while  to  the  Methodists  were  assigned  the 
Aleutian  and  Shumagin  Islands.  The  Moravians  were  to  pitch 
their  tents  in  the  interior — in  the  valleys  of  the  Kusko  Kwim  and 
the  Nushkagak ;  while  the  Congregationalists  mounted  higher 
to  the  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  on  the  American  side  of  Bering 
Strait ;  and,  last  of  all,  as  nobody  else  would  take  it,  the  Pres- 
byterians went  to  Point  Barrow,  in  latitude  seventy-two  degrees 
and  twenty-three  minutes,  the  most  northern  mission  station  in 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA       3G5 

the  world.  Thus,  in  the  military  assignment  of  posts  to  be  held, 
the  stout-hearted  Presbyterians  at  once  led  the  advance,  and 
brought  up  the  rear  in  a  climate  where  the  thermometer  was  at 
times  sixty-five  to  seventy  degrees  below  zero — a  situation  that 
called  for  no  ordinary  amount  of  "grit  and  grace." 

Here  was  an  ideal  distribution  of  the  missionary  force,  in 
which  there  was  no  sacrifice  of  principle,  but  an  overflow  of 
Christian  love,  which  seemed  to  come  as  a  baptism  from  on 
high.  It  was  not  in  pride  or  scorn,  but  in  the  truest  love,  that 
these  soldiers  of  the  Cross  turned  to  the  right  and  the  left,  at 
the  command  of  their  great  leader,  and  marched  to  their  sev- 
eral positions  of  duty  and  danger.' 

This  ''ideal  distribution"  of  missionary  forces,  so  hap- 
pily described  by  Dr.  Field, — which  holds  good  iu  most 
of  its  details  as  a  working  principle  to  this  day — does  not 
tell  the  whole  story  of  Sheldon  Jackson's  broad-minded 
liberality  and  generous  cooperation  and  helpfulness.  He 
was  the  friend  and  adviser  of  the  officials  of  all  the  Prot- 
estant missionary  societies  operating  within  the  limits  of 
his  great  field  ;  the  friend  and  adviser  of  the  missionaries, 
isolated  iu  some  cases  hundreds  of  miles  from  each  other  ; 
the  angel  of  deliverance  or  the  herald  of  good  tidings  to 
workers  alike  in  church  and  school,  who  were  ice-bound 
for  months,  or  cut  off,  in  some  instances,  for  an  entire 
year  from  communication  with  home  and  friends.  Thus 
in  the  providence  of  God  he  became  a  non-commissioned 
general  agent  to  all  the  churches  except  his  own,  and 
served  them  faithfully,  as  he  had  opportunity  in  his  an- 
nual rounds,  without  commission  or  compensation.  As 
he  sailed  from  shore  to  shore,  and  from  island  to  island, 
and  met  the  representatives  of  the  several  sects,  he  could 
not— to  use  his  own  expression — "tell  them  apart." 
Even  when  he  came  to  St.  Michael,  sixty  miles  north  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Yukon,  and  there  met  a  Roman  Catholic 
priest,  who  had  come  down  from  the  interior  a  distance 

*  "Our  Western  Archipelago,"  Dr.  Field,  p.  145. 


366  SHELDON  JACKSON 

of  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  get  his  yearly  mail  and 
supplies,  he  says,  "My  heart  went  out  to  him  as  a 
brother."  At  his  suggestion,  the  Moravian  Church,  the 
first  to  enter  the  field  after  the  Presbyterian,  established 
a  mission  among  the  Eskimos  in  Western  Alaska,  in  the 
summer  of  1885.  In  the  report  of  the  tenth  United 
States  census  the  statement  is  made  concerning  these  resi- 
dents of  Western  and  Arctic  Alaska  : — 

That  no  trace  or  shadow  of  Christianity  has  found  its  way  to 
their  desolate  regions ;  the  dark  night  of  Shamanism  or  sorcery 
still  hangs  over  the  human  mind.  These  people  share  with 
their  Eastern  kin  a  general  belief  in  evil  spirits  and  powers, 
against  whom  the  Shaman  alone  can  afford  protection  by  sac- 
rifices and  incantations. 

No  philanthropic  missionary  has  ever  found  his  way  to  this 
Arctic  coast,  and  unless  some  modern  Hans  Egede  makes  his 
appearance  among  them  in  the  near  future,  there  will  be  no 
soil  left  in  which  to  plant  the  Christian  seed. 

Such  was  the  dark,  but  true,  picture,  as  drawn  by  a 
government  agent,  of  the  Eskimos  dwelling  in  our  own 
land,  in  1880 ;  but  even  then  the  dawning  of  a  new  day 
was  at  hand. 

Their  pitiable  condition  had  ofttimes  appealed  to  the 
sympathy  of  Sheldon  Jackson,  and  various  plans  for 
reaching  them  with  the  saving  influences  of  the  Gospel 
had  been  debated  and  considered,  as  he  ministered  to  the 
spiritual  necessities  of  those  directly  under  his  influence 
in  the  more  accessible  parts  of  the  country. 

Acting,  at  length,  on  his  own  responsibility  he  made  a 
visit  to  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  in  the  spring  of  1883,  and  had  a 
private  conference  with  Bishop  Edmund  de  Schweinitz, 
with  reference  to  their  sad  condition  and  urgent  necessi- 
ties. At  the  bishop's  request,  the  substance  of  the  per- 
sonal appeal  made  to  him  at  this  time,  was  put  into  writ- 
ten form  and  was  read  by  him  at  the  annual  meeting  of 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA       367 

the  Moravian  Missionary  Society,  August  23d,  of  the 
same  year. 

In  a  printed  sketch  of  the  "•  Beginnings  of  the  Mora- 
vian Mission  in  Alaska,"  its  author,  Bishop  E.  Taylor 
Hamilton,  D.  D.,  says: — 

"  The  commencement  of  a  Moravian  mission  in  Alaska 
was  quite  unforeseen  by  the  members  of  that  church  until 
within  a  year  of  its  actual  inception  ;  and  the  call,  com- 
ing from  an  unexpected  quarter,  was  a  Macedonian  cry 
from  another  denomination  of  Protestant  Christians. 

"At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  'Moravian  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  Among  the  Heathen,'  held  on 
August  23,1883,  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  its  president,  the  late 
Bishop  Edmund  de  Schweinitz,  communicated  a  letter 
from  the  Eev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  of  New  York,  in 
which  he  urged  the  establishment  by  the  Moravian  Church 
of  a  mission  in  Alaska  among  the  Indians  and  Eskimos." 

This  appeal  to  a  society  foremost  among  all  the  churches 
for  its  zeal  and  success  in  missionary  work,  and  which 
dates  back  to  the  year  1787,  made  a  deep  impression  :  and 
its  consideration  resulted  in  the  sending  of  two  of  its  tried 
veterans  on  the  frontier  on  an  exploration  tour  to  West- 
ern Alaska,  with  instructions  to  select  a  site,  if  the  way 
should  be  clear,  for  a  mission.  This  they  accomplished 
after  a  long  and  perilous  journey,  and  called  the  name  of 
the  place  so  selected  Bethel. 

With  a  view  to  awakening  a  greater  and  more  intelli- 
gent interest  in  the  work  to  which  they  had  thus  commit- 
ted the  Moravian  Church,  the  officials  of  the  society  in- 
vited Dr.  Jackson  to  make  a  public  address  in  Bethlehem 
on  the  10th  of  F(^bruary,  1884. 

In  response  to  this  request  he  spoke  to  an  assembly  in 
the  great  Moravian  house  of  worship.  The  pews,  galleries, 
and  all  the  available  standing-room  of  the  aisles  were 
packed  with  deeply  interested  listeners.     Thus  by  the 


368  SHELDON  JACKSON 

favour  of  God  and  the  influence  of  His  Spirit  upon  hearts 
prepared  for  His  service,  the  Moravian  Alaskan  Mission, 
with  all  its  perils  and  responsibilities,  was  enthusiastically 
endorsed  by  the  people  as  well  as  by  their  leaders. 

The  Christian  Guardian,  of  Toronto,  Canada,  under  date 
August  30,  1884,  gave  the  following  account  of  this 
service : — 

A  missionary  meeting  was  held  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  at  which 
the  Rev.  Sheklon  Jackson,  the  father  of  Presbyterian  missions 
in  Alaska,  made  an  address,  picturing  in  vivid  colours  the  dire 
needs  and  glorious  opportunities  of  the  work,  and  calling  upon 
the  Moravian  Church  to  come  forward  as  of  old  to  the  help  of 
the  Lord  in  this  far-off  Northern  land.  A  deep  impression  was 
made.  The  genuine  missionary  spirit  seemed  to  pervade  all 
hearts.  It  was  felt  to  be  a  call  from  the  Master  Himself.  The 
next  morning  the  entire  graduating  class  of  the  theological 
seminary  (eight  young  men)  came  forward  unsolicited,  and 
offered  themselves  for  this  work,  ready  to  leave  parents,  home 
and  the  comforts  and  privileges  of  civilization,  in  order  to  bring 
the  glad  tidings  of  a  Saviour  to  those  Eskimos  on  the  frozen 
shore  of  Alaska. 

In  1903,  five  stations  above  Bristol  Bay  were  occupied 
by  the  devoted  missionaries  of  this  noble  Church  who 
have  endured  great  hardships  and  privations  in  connec- 
tion with  their  work.  The  report  for  that  year  mentions 
an  April  temperature  of  70°  below  zero. 

The  editor  of  The  Moravian  Mission  in  AlasTca — 
"published  to  commemorate  the  completion  of  its  first 
decade,"  June,  1895,  pays  this  graceful  tribute  to  Dr. 
Jackson  and  his  work  : — 

"  Inseparably  associated  as  the  name  of  Carey  with  India," 
says  the  author  of  "  Our  Northernmost  Possessions,"  '•  or  those 
of  Elliot  and  Brainerd  with  the  Indian  in  the  East,  is  the  name 
of  Sheldon  Jackson  with  Alaska.  To  his  faithful  Christian 
energy  and  untiring  zeal,  the  people  of  Alaska  owe  the  intro- 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      Sm 

duction  of  Protestant  missionary  work,  and  the  establishment 
of  schools  for  their  education  and  elevation.  The  future  Chris- 
tian civilization  of  Alaska  must  and  will  revere  his  name  as  that 
of  its  founder." 

The  work  of  education  in  Western  Alaska  was  delayed 
for  several  months  by  the  failure  of  Congress  to  make  an 
appropriation  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1886.  It  was 
made  at  length,  in  the  month  of  August,  but  the  amount 
was  only  $15,000  and  the  season  was  then  too  far  ad- 
vanced to  take  advantage  of  the  sailing  vessels  which  in- 
variably left  San  Francisco  in  the  spring  and  returned  in 
the  fall.  To  avoid  the  delay  of  another  year  in  the  es-. 
tablishment  of  schools  in  that  section  the  schooner  Leo 
was  chartered  for  the  work  of  the  Bureau,  which  sailed 
from  Puget  Sound  with  teachers  and  supplies  on  the  3d 
of  September.  Four  households,  with  two  children,  were 
included  in  the  working  force  which  boarded  this  vessel, 
and  as  many  Christian  homes  were  established  in  the  new 
land  to  which  they  sailed,  as  the  harbingers  of  a  better 
day  and  a  higher  civilization.  Says  Dr.  Field, — "  That 
surely  was  a  memoi-able  voyage.  The  little  schooner 
sailing  away  into  the  Northern  seas,  and  passing  from 
island  to  island,  leaving  at  each  '  a  teacher  with  his 
family'  was  another  Mayflower^  dropping  the  seeds  of 
civilization  in  the  wilderness." 

After  a  tempestuous  cruise  of  more  than  two  months  in 
Western  Alaska,  the  schooner  arrived  at  Sitka.  From 
this  place,  Dr.  Jackson  continued  his  journey  in  the  same 
vessel  to  the  several  points  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  where 
schools  had  been  already  established.  This  extension  of 
the  trip  afforded  an  opportunity  to  gather  up  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska  and  take  them  to  Fort 
Wrangell.  The  trip  to  Wrangell  was  a  long  and  stormy 
one,  consuming  nine  days.  The  ship  was  forced  to  take 
refuge  in  little  coves  or  harbours  three  times,  in  couse- 


370  SHELDON  JACKSON 

quence  of  blinding  snow- storms  or  heavy  gales.  When 
within  thirty  or  forty  miles  of  Fort  Wrangell,  the  vessel 
ran  upon  a  submerged  ledge  of  rock  and  lay  in  a  perilous 
condition  for  twenty-four  hours,  until  floated  off  by  a 
high  tide.  Meanwhile,  the  members  of  presbytery,  fear- 
ful that  they  might  be  delayed  for  an  indefinite  period, 
attempted  to  reach  their  destination  in  a  little  dory.  A 
few  hours  after  they  had  left  the  ship,  a  storm  came  up 
suddenly  and  they  were  compelled  to  make  a  landing  on 
a  bleak  desolate  shore,  where  for  about  twenty -four  hours 
they  were  detained  with  an  insufficient  allowance  of  pro- 
visions, and  such  shelter  as  a  hastily  improvised  wind- 
brake  of  blankets  afforded  through  the  long  night.  In 
the  morning,  Dr.  Jackson  and  two  of  his  companions 
launched  the  dory  in  a  heavy  surf  and  rigging  a  sail  made 
an  attempt  to  reach  the  schooner.  The  rest  of  the  party, 
benumbed  with  the  cold  and  distrustful  of  the  little  boat 
in  such  a  rough  sea,  decided  to  walk  along  the  shore  in 
the  same  direction,  in  the  hope  of  rescue  from  those  on 
the  shij).  After  sailing  before  the  wind  the  most  of  the 
forenoon,  the  schooner  hove  in  sight  and  took  the  trio  in 
the  dory  on  board.  Not  long  afterwards,  the  exhausted 
men  on  the  beach  were  picked  up,  and  without  further 
mishap  or  detention  Wrangell  was  reached  and  the  meet- 
ing of  the  presbytery  held,  in  accordance  with  previous 
arrangements.  At  this  meeting,  Jackson  was  made  a 
commissioner  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1887.  This 
cruise  as  a  whole  occupied  104  days  of  exceptionally 
stormy  weather.  Landings  were  made  at  twenty-two 
points  and  much  valuable  information  was  collected. 

The  sudden  disappearances  of  Dr.  Jackson  on  some  of 
these  northern  tours  and  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  time 
and  place  of  his  reappearing,  made  it  somewhat  difficult 
for  his  friends  and  associates  to  locate  him  or  address  him 
in  case  of  need.     About  the  time  of  his  expected  return 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      371 

from  this  voyage,  Dr.  Kendall,  the  senior  secretary  of 
the  Home  Board,  who,  next  to  the  members  of  his  own 
family,  was  supposed  to  know  the  most  about  his  move- 
ments, wrote  thus  to  him  at  his  Galesburg  address  : — 

I  followed  you  with  your  load  of  schoolhouses,  school-teach- 
ers, and  Baptist  Association,  out  from  Seattle  into  the  great 
wide  ocean,  and  waited  to  know  what  I  should  hear  next.  I 
would  not  have  been  surprised  to  hear  that  you  were  climbing 
the  frosty  north  pole  or  warming  your  hands  at  the  crater  of 
Mount  St.  Elias,  but  we  have  heard  of  your  returning  in  peace 
through  Sitka,  gathering  up  a  presbytery  on  your  way,  meet- 
ing and  organizing  at  Wrangell,  being  elected  to  the  General 
Assembly,  and  passing  on  your  way  southward.  Where  you 
are  now,  what  you  have  been  doing  since,  where  your  wife  and 
children  are,  where  anybody  is  by  whom  we  can  reach  you  by 
letter,  I  know  not,  but  I  strike  in  the  dark.  If  this  hits  you  at 
Galesburg,  or  anywhere  else,  I  pray  you  to  give  heed  to  my 
requests,  and  if  it  hits  your  wife,  and  does  not  hit  you,  I  beg 
that  she  will  give  me  the  information  as  to  where  you  can  be 
reached,  for  I  have  three  requests  to  make  of  you. 

Prior  to  the  year  1890,  the  work  of  establishing  schools 
was  necessarily  slow.  The  appropriations  were  small  and 
the  hindrances,  already  indicated,  were  many  and  per- 
plexing. There  was  nevertheless  a  steady  advance. 
Schoolhouses  were  erected  towards  the  close  of  the  dec- 
ade at  several  of  the  points  occupied,  in  Southeastern 
and  Western  Alaska,  and  contract  schools  were  estab- 
lished in  several  places  where  new  missions  had  been 
opened  up  by  the  various  churches  and  missionary  so- 
cieties. 

In  1885,  the  Friends  founded  a  mission  on  Douglas  Is- 
land, and  the  government  commenced  a  system  of  day- 
schools  in  connection  with  it.  In  July,  1886,  a  contract 
was  entered  into  witli  the  Mission  Board  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  a  teacher  was  sent  out  to  found  a  school  at 
some  point  in  the  Yukon  valley.     A  similar  contract  was 


3Y2  SHELDON  JACKSON 

made  with  the  Moravian  Church,  to  establish  a  second 
mission  and  school  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nushagak  Eiver. 
"These  schools,''  says  the  agent  in  his  report,  "with 
the  one  at  Bethel,  500  miles  from  each  other,  and  central 
to  a  population  of  from  10,000  to  12,000  uncivilized 
Eskimos  in  Western  Alaska,  were  the  entering  wedges  to 
the  civilization  of  that  whole  great  region — the  beginning 
of  greater  things." 

In  the  same  year  (18S6),  the  "  Holy  Cross  "  Mission 
was  founded  by  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  in  the  valley 
of  the  Yukon,  and  received  aid  from  the  government  in 
the  establishment  of  contract  schools. 

In  1887,  the  Swedish  Evangelical  Mission  Covenant  of 
America  established  a  station  at  Uualakleet  and  Yakutat. 
In  the  summer  of  1887,  Sheldon  Jackson  founded  The 
North  Star,  an  illustrated  monthly  paper,  printed  at  Sitka, 
with  a  view  to  the  dissemination  of  reliable  information 
relating  to  the  several  missions  and  schools.  In  the  same 
year,  the  industrial  school  at  Sitka  was  transferred  to 
the  care  of  the  Bureau  of  Education,  and  was  made  a  con- 
tract school. 

Another  important  event  in  the  history  of  this  year, 
was  the  removal  of  the  veteran  missionary,  William  Dun- 
can, from  the  village  of  Metlahkatlah,  in  British  Columbia, 
with  a  company  of  about  seven  hundred  civilized  and 
Christianized  Tsimpsean  natives,  to  a  new  settlement  and 
mission  station  on  Annette  Island,  in  Alaska.'  This  was 
a  powerful  reinforcement  to  the  Christian  element  of  the 
country. 

In  1889,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  entered  Alaska 
and  founded  a  mission  and  contract  schools  among  the 
Aleuts  of  Unalaska.     Says  the  author  of  ' '  Alaska  for 

'  In  selecting  this  site,  Mr.  Duncan  was  aided  by  Dr.  Jackson,  who 
first  suggested  it  to  him,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to  secure  it  as  a  per- 
manent reservation  for  his  Colony  by  act  of  Congress. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  ALASKA      373 

Juuiors,"  ''I  thiDk  we  owe  it  to  Dr.  Jackson  that 
wherever  missionary  work  is  established  in  Alaska,  there 
the  government  establishes  a  school  in  connection  with 
it." 

The  develofmieut  of  the  work  up  to  this  point  made  it 
necessary  to  have  an  assistant  and  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  was  authorized  to  make  the  appointment. 
Upon  the  recommendation  of  Dr.  Jackson,  Mr.  \Yilliam 
Hamilton,  a  representative  of  the  Moravian  Church,  was 
made  "Assistant  General  Agent,"  and  entered  at  once 
upon  the  duties  of  his  office. 

Through  all  these  agencies,  operating  in  unison,  the  way 
was  prepared  for  the  better  days  to  come. 


XVII 

DAYBREAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA 

"  Ice  built,  ice  bound,  aud  sea-bounded  ! 
Such  cold  seas  of  silence  !  such  room  ! 
Such  snow-light !     Such  sea-light  confounded 

With  thunders,  that  smite  as  a  doom  ! 
Such  grandeur  !  such  glory,  such  gloom  !  " 

— Joaquin  Miller. 

"  Love  has  taken  the  place  of  fear,  and  light  the  place  of  darkness." 

—  William  Duncan. 

WITHIN  the  period  covered  by  the  preceding 
chai)ter,  the  work  of  education  and  evangeli- 
zation among  the  natives  of  Alaska  was 
limited  to  the  most  promising  towns  and  villages  of  the 
southeastern  and  southwestern  sections  of  the  country. 

Into  the  sub- Arctic  and  Arctic  regions  proper,  for  long 
the  home  of  the  hardy,  but  uncivilized  and  sadly-debased 
Eskimos,  no  gospel  messenger  or  Christian  teacher  had 
yet  gone. 

The  special  feature  of  the  year  1890  was  the  planting  of 
mission  schools,  supported  in  part  by  the  government,  at 
three  central  stations,  representing  the  largest  settlements 
on  the  Arctic  coast,  from  which  to  reach  the  nomadic 
population  of  the  interior.  With  respect  to  the  begin- 
ning of  this  work  the  General  Agent  of  Education  says  in 
his  official  report :  — 

''  In  the  fall  of  1882,  Lieutenant-Commander  Charles  S. 
Stockton,  TJ.  S.  N,,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  cruise  in 
the  Arctic,  called  my  attention  to  the  degraded  condition 

374 


DAYBREAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA     376 

of  the  Eskimos  in  Northern  Alaska.  I  brought  the  facts 
to  the  attention  of  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  who  entered  heartily  into  the 
plan  of  establishing  schools  under  the  sui^ervision  of  well- 
known  missionary  organizations.  As  the  Moravians  had 
been  so  successful  in  educating  and  civilizing  the  Eskimos 
of  Greenland  and  Labrador,  the  oversight  of  the  schools 
was  first  offered  to  them. 

Having  their  hands  full  of  work  among  the  Eskimos  in 
Southwestern  Alaska,  they  very  reluctantly  declined  the 
offer.  I  then  visited  the  missionary  societies  in  New  York 
city,  with  the  following  results  : — 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Mission  Board  agreed  to  take 
the  oversight  of  a  school  at  Point  Hope,  Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Stockton,  U.  S.  K,  being  a  member  of  that  de- 
nomination. The  Mission  Boards  of  the  Presbyterian, 
Congregational,  Methodist,  and  Baptist  churches,  like  the 
Moravians,  declined  to  accept  a  station  on  account  of  the 
impoverished  condition  of  their  treasuries.  In  this 
emergency,  I  made  an  appeal  to  Mrs.  Elliott  F.  Shepard, 
who  agreed  to  provide  the  money,  if  the  Woman's  Board 
of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  would  take 
the  oversight  of  the  proposed  school  at  Point  Barrow. 
This  offer  was  accepted. '  About  the  same  time,  I  was 
invited  to  spend  a  Sabbath  with  the  Congregational 
church  of  Southport,  Conn.,  and  addressed  them  morning 
and  evening  on  the  work  in  Alaska.  I  told  them  the 
story  of  the  Eskimos  and  made  an  appeal  for  a  mission  at 
Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  on  the  American  side  of  Bering 
Strait,  with"  the  result  that  an  offering  of  $2,000  was 
made  for  this  purpose.  This  was  given  to  the  American 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Congregational  Church  for  the 
establishment  of  the  mission  at  Wales. 

*  Mrs.  Shephard  continaed  to  furnish  the  salary  of  the  missionary  at 
Point  Barrow  for  many  years  following. 


3Y6  SHELDON  JACKSON 

On  the  13th  of  March,  1890,  Dr.  Jackson  published  a 
call  for  volunteers  to  man  these  stations,  in  several  of  the 
leading  papers  of  the  country.  In  this  call,  the  rigours 
of  the  Arctic  winters,  the  necessary  isolation  from,  the 
outside  world  for  perhaps  a  year  or  more,  the  difficulties 
connected  with  teaching  English  among  a  people  who 
were  as  a  rule  ignorant  of  it,  and  the  inevitable  hardships, 
privations,  and  perils  incident  to  the  work,  demanding  a 
missionary  spirit  of  the  most  patient  and  heroic  type, — 
were  mentioned  and  emphasized  with  a  view  to  the  dis- 
couragement of  all  who  were  not  of  this  class. 

To  the  surprise  of  the  general  agent,  twenty-four 
volunteers  responded  to  this  appeal,  twelve  of  whom 
were  women.  From  this  number  four  men  were  selected. 
For  Point  Barrow,  Prof.  L.  M.  Stevenson ;  for  Point 
Hope,  Mr.  John  B.  Driggs,  M.  D.  ;  for  Cape  Prince  of 
Wales,  Prof.  Wm.  T.  Lopp,  of  Indiana,  and  Prof.  H.  E. 
Thornton  of  Virginia. 

This  elect  company,  with  their  supply  of  provisions  for 
a  year,  lumber,  and  other  materials  for  school  buildings, 
were  shipped  on  a  schooner  at  San  Francisco  to  Port 
Clarence,  where  they  were  transferred  to  a  whaler  for 
their  several  destinations. 

By  permission  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Dr. 
Jackson  was  given  the  privilege  of  making  all  his  visits 
to  the  Arctic  and  sub- Arctic  sections  of  his  field,  year  by 
year,  in  the  United  States  revenue  cutter,  Bem\  Through 
the  courtesy  of  Captain  L.  G.  Shepherd,  chief  of  the  Eeve- 
niae  Cutter  Service,  and  Captain  M.  A.  Healy,  com- 
mander of  the  Bern;  he  was  accorded  many  special 
privileges  on  board  the  ship,  and  given  every  oppor- 
tunity to  visit  his  stations  and  carry  out  his  plans. 

The  vessel  which  thus  became  identified  with  the  be- 
ginning of  his  missionary  and  reindeer  enterprises  in 
Northern  Alaska,  has  had  a  long  and  honourable  record 


DAYBEEAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA     377 

as  a  cruiser  in  Arctic  seas.  She  was  built  at  Greenock, 
Scotland,  for  the  Dundee  sealing  and  whaling  fleet  and 
is  regarded  as  the  best  vessel  in  the  Arctic  Ocean  for 
work  in  the  ice.  It  is  described  as  a  "  barquentine- 
rigged  steamer,  198  feet  long,  30  feet  wide,  and  18.5  feet 
deep,  with  a  capacity  of  714  tons."  The  Bear  was  sent 
to  the  rescue  of  the  Greeley  expedition  in  1884,  and  after 
its  return  with  the  survivors  of  the  party  was  turned 
over  to  the  Treasury  Department  and  detailed  for  service 
as  a  revenue  cutter  in  the  treacherous  and  uncharted 
waters  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Season 
after  season  has  she  gone  north  in  the  spring  to  enforce 
the  revenue  laws,  and  practically  to  do  police  duty  around 
the  Seal  Islands  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  native  settle- 
ments, stretching  from  Kadiak,  fifteen  hundred  miles  to 
Attn,  and  from  Unalaska,  twelve  hundred  miles  north- 
ward to  Point  Barrow.  During  the  first  twelve  years  of 
service  in  these  dangerous  waters  the  Bear  has  rescued 
more  than  half  a  thousand  shipwrecked  whalers  and  des- 
titute mariners,  and  not  a  season  passes  that  does  not  add 
to  its  list  of  rescued  men  from  coasting  vessels  or  whalers. 
Its  record  is  equally  brilliant  in  the  protection  of  thou- 
sands of  half  civilized  natives  from  the  rapacity  of  the 
white  man  and  the  demoralization  of  the  white  man's 
rum.  In  vast  stretches  of  coast  (from  10,000  to  12,000 
miles  is  a  season's  cruise)  unknown  to  civilization,  the 
flag  of  the  revenue  steamer  is  the  only  evidence  of  the 
authority  of  the  government  ever  seen,  and  the  only 
protection  afforded  previous  to  the  coming  of  the  miners 
to  Nome  in  1898.  The  steamer  Bear  also  furnishes  the 
only  medical  attendance  which  the  natives  living  along 
thousands  of  miles  of  coast  ever  receive. 

With  the  noble  captain  of  this  vessel,  whose  purpose 
in  many  things  accorded  so  happily  with  his  own,  the 
superintendent  of  these  Alaskan  missions  and  schools 


378  SHELDON  JACKSON 

made  several  trips  north  of  the  Arctic  Circle,  five  of 
which  were  consecutive,  from  1890  to  1900. 

On  the  first  of  these  cruises,  the  captain  of  the  vessel 
had  been  directed  to  take  a  census  of  the  coast  villages 
of  Northern  Alaska.  This  made  frequent  stops  a  neces- 
sity and  gave  to  Dr.  Jackson  unusual  facilities  for  reach- 
ing the  larger  portion  of  the  peoj)le. 

The  first  cruise,  typical  in  many  of  its  details  of  those 
which  followed,  was  westward  from  Seattle  to  the  Aleutian 
Islands,  a  voyage  of  about  ten  days,  and  thence  north- 
ward into  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean.  It  in- 
cluded the  Seal  Islands  and  several  points  on  the  Siberian 
coast.  Large  ice-fields  were  encountered  at  various  points 
on  the  northward  voyage,  making  it  necessary  for  the 
ship  to  force  its  way  through  grinding  masses  of  moving 
ice ;  or  moored  to  the  more  solidified  sections  to  drift 
with  them  for  days  at  a  time  until  a  way  could  be  found 
to  a  more  open  sea. 

On  the  Fourth  of  July,  a  little  after  the  hour  of  noon, 
the  vessel  reached  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  at  the  extreme 
end  of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  Here  on  a  dreary  point 
of  land  the  day  was  celebrated  by  laying  the  foundations 
of  the  first  schoolhouse  and  mission  on  the  northwestern 
coast  of  Alaska.  ''From  this  school  is  visible,  to  the 
north,  the  Arctic  Ocean  ;  to  the  south,  Bering  Sea,  and 
to  the  west,  Bering  Strait,  the  coast  of  Siberia  and 
Diomede  Islands."  A  schooner  laden  with  building  ma- 
terial and  supplies  for  this  point  arrived  on  the  same 
day.  On  the  day  previous,  another  schooner  with  sup- 
plies for  the  whalers  and  the  four  teachers  appointed  for 
the  posts  already  mentioned  in  the  Arctic  seas,  had 
arrived  at  Port  Clarence  in  time  to  transfer  Professors 
Thornton  and  Lopp  to  the  Bear.  They  were  thus  privi- 
leged to  assist  Dr.  Jackson  in  locating  the  site  and  laying 
the  foundations  for  the  school  building.    Volunteers  from 


O       CJ 


^  I/) 


DAYBliEAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA     379 

Port  Clarence,  thirty  miles  distant ;  and  a  detail  of  car- 
penters and  men  from  the  Bear  worked  diligently  on  the 
house  which  was  ready  for  occupancy  on  the  12th  of 
July.  On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  the  Bear  started 
northward  through  Bering  Strait.  The  school  at  this 
point  reported  a  daily  average  of  138  scholars  for  seven 
months  and  113  for  the  nine  months  of  the  first  school 
year. 

At  Point  Hope,  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  about 
300  miles  south  of  the  land's  end  northward,  the  second 
schoolhouse  of  this  group,  and  the  first  of  its  kind  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  was  located  and  con- 
structed by  the  carpenters  who  had  aided  in  the  erection 
of  the  building  at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales.  The  building, 
(vith  timely  help  given  by  a  detail  from  the  ship,  on  its 
arrival,  was  completed,  and  ready  for  occupancy  on  the 
21st  of  July. 

The  following  account  of  the  beginning  of  school-work 
in  this  dreary  district  of  darkness  and  cold,  as  quoted 
from  Dr.  Jackson's  records  by  Alice  Palmer  Henderson, 
the  gifted  author  of  "The  Rainbow's  End,  Alaska," 
gives  a  very  realistic  and  interesting  impression  of  the 
drawbacks  connected  with  this  initial  undertaking  : — 

The  school  was  opened  on  the  ist  of  October,  1890.  The 
day  brought  with  it  a  blizzard  and  snow-storm  that  lasted  for 
nine  days.  During  the  morning,  the  teacher  occupied  the 
schoolroom  alone,  but  as  time  wore  on  and  no  pupils  came,  he 
put  on  his  furs  and  started  for  the  village  to  hunt  up  the  chil- 
dren. He  found  a  boy  walking  on  the  beach.  Taking  him 
into  the  schoolroom,  he  commenced  school.  At  its  close,  he 
presented  his  pupil  with  a  couple  of  pancakes  left  from  his  own 
breakfast.  The  effect  was  equal  to  any  reward  of  merit.  That 
boy  proved  one  of  the  most  regular  in  attendance  during  the 
entire  winter  season.  The  next  morning  four  presented  them- 
selves, and  from  that  the  school  grew  to  sixty-eight.  A  mixture 
of  flour,  molasses,  and  water  made  a  sort  of  cake,  a  little  of 


380  SHELDON  JACKSON 

which  was  given  to  the  pupils  each  evening,  proving  not  only  a 
very  cheap  and  efficient  method  of  securing  regular  attendance, 
and  promoting  discipline,  as  they  had  to  be  both  present  and  per- 
fect in  their  deportment  and  recitations,  to  be  entitled  to  cake. 
The  scholars  usually  arrived  from  six  to  seven  in  the  morning 
and  remained  all  day.  The  sun  disappeared  on  the  loth  of 
December  and  returned  on  the  3d  of  January,  giving  them  a 
night  of  twenty-four  days.  Lamps  were  required  in  the  school- 
room from  November  12th  to  February  9th.  During  February 
and  a  portion  of  March,  a  series  of  blizzards  set  in  that  were 
beyond  description.  The  ice  was  solid  across  the  ocean  to 
Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  200  miles  distant.  The  effect  of  the 
gales  was  such  that  at  times  it  seemed  as  if  the  schoolhouse 
must  be  blown  away.  Snow  flew  in  perfect  sheets.  The 
schoolhouse  was  located  two  miles  from  the  village,  and  yet, 
notwithstanding  the  storm  and  distance,  the  attendance  was 
good.  For  a  few  days  the  teacher  hired  men  to  see  the  little 
ones  safely  home  through  the  storm  (the  two  miles'  distance), 
but  soon  found  that  the  precaution  was  unnecessary;  that  they 
were  accustomed  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

Another  problem  in  connection  with  the  winter  schools 
in  Arctic  Alaska  arose  from  the  absence  of  the  sun  to 
mark  distinctly  the  alternate  periods  of  day  and  night. 
Consequently  when  the  school  bell  would  ring  at  nine 
o'clock  A.  M.  it  was  as  dark  as  at  nine  P.  M.  and  the  chil- 
dren, without  timepieces  of  any  kind  to  guide  them,  had 
frequently  to  be  roused  from  their  slumbers  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  beginning  of  a  new  day.  For  this  reason, 
many  of  the  pupils  came  to  the  school  at  the  wrong  hour, 
or  at  times  without  their  breakfasts. 

From  Point  Hope  the  vessel  slowly  worked  its  way 
northward  through  immense  fields  of  floating  ice  to  the 
Refuge  Station  at  Point  Barrow,  where  a  supply  of  provi- 
sions is  stored  and  accommodations  are  provided  for  one 
hundred  shipwrecked  whalers,  in  case  of  need.  Along 
this  Arctic  coast,  where  scores  of  vessels  have  gone  down 
or  have  been  crushed  in  the  ice,  more  than  2,000  sailors 
have  been  wrecked  within  the  space  of  ten  years.     Here, 


Aurora  Borealis.  Presbyterian  Mission  at  Point  Barrow,  Alaska. 
Established  by  Dr.  Jackson,  1890.  Northernmost  village  and  mis- 
sion on  the  continent. 


DAYBREAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA     381 

on  the  20th  of  July,  Prof.  L.  M.  Stevenson,  the  teacher 
selected  for  the  school  to  be  established  at  this  place, 
was  lauded  with  his  supplies  and  left  alone  to  begin  his 
work.  Through  the  courtesy  of  Captain  Healy,  a  room 
for  the  school  was  secured  in  one  of  the  government 
buildings.  In  this  dreary  and  desolate  place,  which  is 
farther  north  than  the  North  Cape  in  Europe  j  where 
the  long  Arctic  day  and  night  were  each  nearly  three 
months  long ;  where  the  outlook  on  the  seaward  side 
both  summer  and  winter  was  a  perpetual  ice-field, 
stretching  northward  towards  the  Pole;  where  in  the 
autumn  and  spring  great  whales  sported  before  his 
front  door  and  in  the  winter  f»olar  bears  prowled  around 
his  dwelling,  this  courageous  herald  of  a  higher  civ- 
ilization and  a  better  life  gathered  the  children  and 
older  peoi)le  together  and  gave  them  their  first  lessons 
in  language  and  the  elementary  branches  of  human 
knowledge. 

In  a  letter  recounting  the  events  of  this  cruise,  Dr. 
Jackson  writes  : — 

"  It  is  a  continual  joy  to  me,  that  at  least  in  three  places 
we  are  this  season  commencing  Christian  work,  which 
will  not  only  light  up  this  life,  but  also  secure  to  these 
long  neglected  natives  an  everlasting  home,  where  exist- 
ence will  not  be  one  prolonged  struggle  of  suffering,  want, 
and  hopeless  misery." 

At  Unalaska,  on  the  return  journey,  a  transfer  was 
made  to  the  revenue  cutter,  limJi,  which  was  about  to  sail 
for  Sitka  and  other  ports  in  SoutheavStern  Alaska.  This 
afforded  the  opportunity  to  make  a  tour  of  inspection 
through  this  region  to  all  the  schools  then  in  operation, 
except  those  at  Klawak  and  Metlahkatlah.  On  the  11th 
of  November,  Dr.  Jackson  reached  his  home  in  Wash- 
ington, after  an  absence  of  seven  months,  having  travelled 
in  all,  by  land  and  water,  a  distance  of  17,825  miles. 


382  SHELDON  JACKSON 

The  second  annual  tour,  in  1891,  with  some  divergences 
covered  practically  the  same  ground,  but  was  taken  in 
the  reverse  order.  After  several  attempts — covering 
nearly  a  month  in  time — to  force  his  way  through  the  ice- 
pack, in  the  vicinity  of  Point  Belcher,  the  captain  was 
obliged  to  give  up  his  purpose  to  visit  the  station  at 
Point  Barrow  only  seventy  miles  distant,  and  reluctantly 
turned  southward.  Dr.  Jackson  was  near  enough,  how- 
ever, to  communicate  with  Mr.  Stevenson,  who  found  a 
way  to  the  ship  and  made  such  arrangements  as  were 
necessary  to  tide  over  the  long  interval  of  seclusion  which 
must  elapse  before  the  Bear  could  make  another  attempt 
to  reach  his  lonely  station. 

On  the  third  annual  cruise,  in  the  summer  of  1892, 
Captain  Healy  succeeded  in  reaching  Point  Barrow, 
where  the  superintendent  left  a  bell  for  the  school  and 
other  supplies  which  had  not  been  delivered  the  preced- 
ing season.  The  leading  event  of  this  year  was  the  in- 
troduction of  domestic  reindeer  into  Alaska,  and  several 
zigzag  trips  were  made  for  this  purpose  back  and  forth 
between  the  contiguous  sections  of  the  two  continents. 
An  unusual  amount  of  floating  ice  impeded  the  progress 
of  the  vessel  on  these  trips,  and  frequently  the  captain 
was  obliged  to  shift  his  anchorage  or  moor  the  vessel  to 
the  immense  floes  of  ice  which  bore  down  upon  it.  Dur- 
ing this  season,  some  of  the  whalers  were  caught  in  the 
ice-drifts  early  in  April,  and  were  not  released  from  their 
imprisonment  until  June.  One  vessel  of  this  class  drifted 
with  an  ice-pack  northward  for  nearly  four  hundred 
miles.  It  seems  somewhat  incongruous  with  ordinary 
happenings  to  be  beset  with  swarms  of  mosquitoes  in  the 
midst  of  floating  ice,  but  this  appears  to  have  been  a 
common  experience  in  these  Arctic  regions.  On  one  oc- 
casion when  the  vessel  was  at  anchorage  in  the  midst  of 
ice-drifts  the  swarms  of  mosquitoes  were  so  annoying  to 


DAYBREAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA     383 

those  on  board  that  the  captain  weighed  anchor  and 
moved  farther  out  to  sea. 

At  a  later  date,  while  travelling  in  an  open  boat,  Dr. 
Jackson  was  driven  out  from  a  hastily  improvised  shelter 
during  a  driving  storm  of  sleet  and  rain,  by  a  horde  of 
hungry  mosquitoes.  When  his  position  outside  became 
almost  intolerable,  he  returned  to  the  cover  and  fought 
the  swarming  pests  which  assailed  him  with  renewed 
vigour.  A  friend  who  was  with  him  attemi)ted  to  drive 
them  out  with  clouds  of  tobacco  smoke,  but  failing  in  this 
resigned  himself  to  his  fate,  and  went  to  sleep.  It  was 
not  so  easy  for  the  hero  of  this  story  to  adapt  himself  to 
the  situation,  however,  and  he  alternated  his  time  be- 
tween fighting  mosquitoes  and  sitting  out  in  the  rain. 

The  fifth  annual  cruise  to  the  Arctic,  in  the  summer  of 
1894,  was  made  by  way  of  Sitka  going  and  returning. 
Point  Barrow  was  reached  after  the  usual  experiences 
with  ice-floes  and  adverse  elements,  on  the  5th  of  August. 
At  all  the  stations  visited  the  mail  pouches,  with  their 
precious  messages  from  the  outside  world,  were  delivered 
and  the  supplies  for  the  year  were  landed  at  seven  Arctic 
and  sub- Arctic  missions  and  schools. 

Before  the  close  of  the  decade  in  which  these  missions 
and  schools  were  founded,  several  additional  stations  were 
added,  and  their  combined  influence  in  the  elevation  of 
this  rude  and  semi-barbarous  people  has  been  very  marked. 
It  is  said  that  when  the  mission  at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales 
was  established,  the  village  in  which  it  was  located  was 
so  notorious  for  treachery  and  high-handed  wickedness 
that  no  whaler  had  dared  to  drop  anchor  in  its  neigh- 
bourhood for  ten  years.  Tlie  placing  of  the  missionaries 
there  was  regarded  by  the  ofiicers  of  the  whaling  vessels 
as  a  foolhardy  undertaking,  from  which  no  good  could 
result.  Very  difierent,  however,  was  the  outcome  of  this 
heroic  venture  in  the  name  of  Christ.     The  school  was 


384  SHELDON  JACKSON 

well  attended  from  the  first,  the  simplest  truths  of  the 
Gospel  were  preached  to  willing  listeners,  and  so  great 
was  the  influence  of  these  truths  that  in  some  degree  the 
whole  community  was  elevated  and  transformed.  Here, 
as  in  many  other  jilaces  in  Alaska,  the  work  of  the  mis- 
sionary made  it  safe  for  the  trader,  the  miner,  and  the 
sailor,  and  yet  there  were  few  among  these  adventurers  of 
the  early  daj" s  who  recognized  the  value  of  this  work  or 
even  regarded  it  with  approval.  In  this  case  the  coming 
of  the  missionaries  prepared  the  way  for  the  return  of  the 
whalers,  and  in  all  the  years  following  they  have  an- 
chored their  ships  before  the  village  and  landed  their 
crews  in  safety. 

At  Point  Barrow,  the  conditions  were  different,  in 
some  respects,  but  the  influence  of  the  Church  and  school 
w^as  so  marked  and  salutary  that  the  fortified  habitation, 
which  was  built  early  in  the  eighties,  to  protect  the  resi- 
dents of  the  government  station  from  the  natives,  was 
dismantled.  And  when  at  a  later  period  more  than  200 
shipwrecked  sailors  sought  the  help  and  protection  of  the 
village,  its  inhabitants,  influenced  by  the  new  teaching 
and  civilization  which  had  come  to  them,  fed  and  clothed 
these  needy  sufferers  from  their  own  scanty  supplies. 

In  less  than  eleven  years  after  the  founding  of  a  Chris- 
tian school  at  Point  Barrow,  Dr.  Marsh,  the  medical  mis- 
sionary, then  in  charge  of  the  station,  reported  a  church- 
membership  of  forty-three,  with  a  list  of  waiting  appli- 
cants, under  special  care  and  instruction,  numbering 
about  one  hundred.  Into  the  little  church  building  hold- 
ing about  one  hundred  comfortably,  from  two  hundred  to 
two  hundred  and  fifty  would  frequently  crowd  together 
at  the  morning  service,  to  the  great  discomfort  of  the 
speaker,  who  had  not  been  accustomed,  like  the  people  of 
his  charge,  to  an  atmosphere  in  which,  as  the  missionary 
put  it,  the  light  burned  dimly  for  want  of  oxygen. 


DAYBREAK  IN  NORTHERN  ALASKA     385 

Thus  amid  many  disco uragemeuts  faithful  men  and 
women  manned  these  far-away  outposts  in  this  dreary 
land  of  ice  and  snow,  changing  the  current  of  human 
lives,  patiently  introducing  the  elements  of  a  higher  civ- 
ilization and  winning  from  these  stolid  and  seemingly 
stupid  men,  women,  and  children  many  rich  trophies  of 
redeeming  grace. 

While  we  give  high  honour  to  these  brave  and  patient 
servants  of  Jesus  Christ  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  man  who,  by  reason  of  his  long  and  faithful  service 
in  behalf  of  the  people  of  this  land,  has  been  appro- 
priately styled  ''The  Apostle  of  Alaska,"  was  the  first 
of  all  the  rei^reseutatives  of  Protestant  Christendom  to 
plead  the  cause  of  the  beniglited  residents  of  the  Arctic 
coast  and  the  first  to  bring  to  them  the  inestimable  bless- 
ings of  the  Christian  Church  and  school.  His  work  in 
the  making  of  the  future  of  Alaska  and  the  saving  of  the 
Eskimos  of  this  region  from  slow  starvation  and  ultimate 
extinction, — a  work  almost  coterminous  with  the  giving 
to  them  of  the  Gospel — by  the  introduction  of  the  domes- 
ticated reindeer,  will  be  the  subject  of  the  chapter  fol- 
lowing. 


XVIII 

THE   INTRODUCTION   OF    SIBERIAN    REINDEER 
INTO  THE  LAND  OF  THE  ESKIMOS 

"  When  the  history  of  that  vast  territory  in  the  frozen  North  shall 
have  been  written  by  the  light  of  an  assured  development,  the  figui'e 
of  Sheldon  Jackson  will  loom  up  ^heroic  in  its  pages,  as  one  v^^hose 
broad  humanity,  willing  self-sacrifice,  indomitable  determination  and 
Christian  faith,  made  him  a  pioneer  of  civilization  in  a  land  which  all 
save  his  few  devoted  lieutenants  shunned  till  the  greed  of  gold  led 
them  to  face  rigours  and  perils  far  exceeding  those  embraced  in  the  ap- 
peals of  the  gentle  aud  daring  missionary." — Mail  and  Express,  New 
York,  1897. 

WHEN  Sheldon  Jackson  made  his  first  visit,  in 
the  summer  of  1890,  to  the  towns  and  settle- 
ments of  Arctic  Alaska,  for  the  purpose  of  es- 
tablishing schools  and  gathering  information  concerning 
the  condition  of  the  peoj)le,  he  found  that  the  sources  of 
food  supply  upon  which  the  natives  had  depended  for 
ages  past,  were  diminishing  so  rapidly  and  surely  that, 
without  intervention  or  help  from  outside  sources,  they 
would  soon  be  reduced  to  a  condition  of  hopeless  misery 
and  slow  starvation. 

On  one  ice-girt  island,  visited  on  this  cruise,  the  in- 
habitants of  a  whole  village,  partly  through  improvidence 
and  partly  through  the  wanton  destruction  of  their  food 
supplies  by  whalers,  had  miserably  perished  a  short  time 
before. 

•  At  other  points,  the  inhabitants  had  been  reduced  to 
desperate  straits  to  secure  subsistence  through  the  long, 
dark  winters  of  isolation  from  all  outside  communication 

386 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER  387 

or  help.  In  every  portion  of  the  vast  stretches  along  the 
coasts  of  the  Bering  and  Arctic  Seas  the  white  man,  with 
his  imj)roved  methods  of  slaughter,  had  relentlessly  pur- 
sued the  whale,  the  walrus,  and  the  seal,  driving  them 
into  remote  regions  beyond  the  reach  of  the  natives, 
as  well  as  cutting  them  off  by  a  system  of  wholesale 
slaughter. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  was  evident  to  this  far-sighted 
pioneer  missionary,  who  had  long  been  accustomed  to 
deal  with  the  aborigines  of  the  laud,  that  some  means  of 
subsistence  other  than  the  chase  must  be  provided  for  the 
Eskimos  of  this  great  northland,  in  order  to  save  them 
from  periodical  recurrences  of  famine  and  ultimate  extinc- 
tion. 

In  his  annual  report,  after  his  return  from  this  tour  of 
exploration,  he  writes  : — 

To  establish  schools  among  a  starving  people  would  be  of 
little  service  ;  hence  education,  civilization,  and  humanity  alike 
call  for  relief.  The  sea  could  not  be  restocked  with  whale  as  a 
stream  can  be  restocked  with  fish.  To  feed  the  population  at 
government  expense  would  pauperize,  and  in  the  end  would  as 
certainly  destroy  them. 

•  Some  other  method  had  to  be  devised.  This  was  suggested 
by  the  wild  nomad  tribes  on  the  Siberian  side  of  Bering  Strait. 
They  had  an  unfailing  food  supply  in  their  large  herds  of  do- 
mestic reindeer.  Why  not  introduce  the  domestic  reindeer  on 
the  American  side  and  thus  provide  a  new  and  adequate  food 
supply? 

To  do  this  will  give  the  Eskimo  as  permanent  a  food  supply 
as  the  cattle  of  the  Western  plains  and  sheep  of  New  Mexico 
and  Arizona  do  the  inhabitants  of  those  sections.  It  will  do 
more  than  preserve  life — it  will  preserve  the  self-respect  of  the 
people  and  advance  them  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  It  will 
change  them  from  hunters  to  herders.  It  will  also  utilize  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  square  miles  of  moss-covered  tundra 
of  Arctic  and  sub-Arctic  Alaska  and  make  those  now  useless  and 
barren  wastes  conducive  to  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the 
United  States. 


388  SHELDON  JACKSON 

A  moderate  computation,  based  upon  the  statistics  of  Lap- 
land, where  similar  climatic  and  other  conditions  exist,  shows 
Northern  and  Central  Alaska  capable  of  supporting  over  9,000,- 
000  head  of  reindeer. 

To  reclaim  and  make  valuable  vast  areas  of  land,  otherwise 
worthless;  to  introduce  large,  permanent,  and  wealth-pro- 
ducing industries,  where  none  previously  existed  ;  to  take  a 
barbarian  people  on  the  verge  of  starvation  and  lift  them  up  to 
a  comfortable  self-support  and  civilization,  is  certainly  a  work 
of  national  importance. 

In  this  brief,  luminous  statement  we  have  the  result  of 
Sheldon  Jackson's  study  of  this  problem  in  practical 
economics,  as  well  as  the  basis  of  his  plea  on  behalf  of 
these  needy  and  dependent  natives.  To  change  them 
from  hmiters  to  herders  to  meet  their  chaugiug  condition 
and  environment,  was  a  conception  worthy  of  a  Christian 
statesman  of  the  highest  type  and  broadest  philanthropy. 
To  carry  it  out  in  the  face  of  ridicule, — for  mauy  regarded 
it  as  the  visionary  dream  of  a  missionary  enthusiast — and 
difficulties,  which  to  any  one  but  a  "missionary  enthu- 
siast," would  have  seemed  to  be  insuperable,  was  a  task 
which  called  for  ability  and  genius  of  a  very  high  order. 

The  report  from  which  the  above  extract  is  taken  was 
approved  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education  and  was  re- 
ferred by  him  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  In  due 
course  it  came  before  the  Fifty-first  Congress  (1890-91), 
and  an  appropriation  of  $15,000  was  incori)orated  in  "  a 
bill  for  the  introduction  of  domesticated  reindeer  into 
Alaska  as  an  experiment,  in  connection  with  the  indus- 
trial schools  of  the  country. "  Amid  the  pressure  of  other 
matters,  which  were  regarded  as  of  more  importance,  this 
proposed  enactment  was  crowded  out  and  Congress  ad- 
journed without  taking  action  upon  it.  At  this  stage  of 
the  proceedings,  as  ex-Governor  Brady  puts  it, — "The 
occasion  demanded  a  man  of  peculiar  type,  and,  like 
Cfesar,  'He  came,  he  saw,'  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER  389 

friends  of  this  enterprise,  has  'conquered.'  "  Believing 
that  the  best  way  to  interest  the  members  of  Congress  in 
this  scheme  was  to  demonstrate  its  practicability,  Dr. 
Jackson,  with  the  approval  of  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, issued  an  apj)eal  for  private  contributions  to  inau- 
gurate it,  during  the  summer  of  1891.  This  appeal  was 
published  in  the  Mail  and  Express,  of  New  York  City,  tlie 
Boston  Transcript,  the  Philadelphia  Ledger,  the  Chicago 
Inier  Ocean,  the  Washington  Star,  and  many  of  the  re- 
ligious papers  of  the  country.  The  response  was  prompt 
and  generous  :  the  sum  total  being  $2,145.  "With  this 
sum,  which  was  expended  in  the  purchase  of  goods  suita- 
ble for  barter  on  the  Siberian  coast.  Dr.  Jackson,  with 
the  approval  and  authorization  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  undertook  the  work  of  securing  and  transporting 
a  small  number  of  reindeer  into  Alaska.'  The  details 
connected  with  this  initial  work  were  many  and  perplex- 
ing ;  but  with  the  help  and  counsel  of  the  ofiicers  of  the 
United  States  revenue  cutter  the  difficulties,  which  at 
times  seemed  to  be  insuperable,  were  overcome.  There 
were  many  things,  however,  which  could  only  be  found 
out  as  the  result  of  actual  experience.  The  reasons  for 
beginning  on  a  small  scale  are  thus  summed  up  by  the 
author  of  the  scheme  : — 

**  In  the  public  discussions  which  arose  with  regard  to 
the  scheme,  a  sentiment  was  found  in  some  circles  that  it 
was  impracticable ;  that  on  account  of  the  superstition 
of  the  natives  tliey  would  be  unwilling  to  sell  their  stock 
alive;  furtlier,  that  the  nature  of  the  reindeer  was  such 
that  they  would  not  bear  ship  transportation,  and,  also, 
that,  even  if  they  could  be  purchased  and  safely  trans- 
ported, the  native  dogs  on  the  Alaskan  coast  would  des- 
troy or  the  natives  kill  them  for  food. 

'The  purchase  of  goods  for  barter  was  necessary  because  the  Siberians 
were  ignorant  of  the  use  of  money. 


390  SHELDON  JACKSON 


iU 


This  feeliug,  which  was  held  by  many  intelligent  men, 
was  asserted  so  strongly  and  positively  that  it  was  thought 
best  in  the  first  season  to  make  haste  slowly,  and  instead 
of  purchasing  a  large  number  of  reindeer  possibly  to  die 
on  shipboard,  or  perhaps  to  be  destroyed  by  the  Alaskan 
dogs  (thus  at  the  outset  iDrejudicing  the  scheme),  it  was 
deemed  wiser  and  safer  to  buy  only  a  few." 

''Therefore,  in  the  time  available  from  other  educational 
duties  during  the  season  of  1891,  I  again  carefully  re- 
viewed the  ground  and  secured  all  possible  additional  in- 
formation with  regard  to  the  reindeer,  and,  while  delay- 
ing tlie  actual  establishment  of  a  herd  until  another  season, 
refut<^d  the  objections  that  the  natives  would  not  sell,  and 
the  d<jer  M^ould  not  bear  transportation,  by  actually  buying 
and  transporting  them, " 

In  this  initial  venture,  sixteen  head  of  reindeer  were 
purchased,  kept  on  shipboard  for  about  three  weeks,  and 
finally  landed  in  good  condition  at  Amakuak  Island,  in 
the  harbour  of  Unalaska.  During  this  memorable  cruise, 
Captain  Healy  coasted  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bering 
and  Arctic  Seas  from  1,200  to  1,500  miles,  calling  at  the 
various  villages,  enabling  Dr.  Jackson  to  hold  conferences 
with  the  leading  herders  of  the  reindeer  and  make  ar- 
rangements, wherever  practicable,  for  the  purchase  of 
animals  the  next  season. 

On  Friday  morning,  the  28th  of  August,  1891,  the  Bear 
anchored  off  Itschau  village,  where  arrangements  had 
been  made  for  the  delivery  of  four  reindeer,  the  first  in- 
stallment of  the  herd  of  sixteen,  and  Lieutenant  Jarvis 
was  sent  off  with  a  boat's  crew  to  bring  them  to  the  ship. 
In  his  daily  journal,  under  the  above  date,  Dr.  Jackson 
says,  "Lieutenant  Jarvis  returned  at  1:30  p.  M.,  and  at 
1 :40  the  first  deer  was  hoisted  on  board.  Thus  it  has  been 
proven  by  actual  experience  ttat  reindeer  can  be  pur- 
chased alive.     This  is  a  great  event.     It  is  now  to  be 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER  391 

tested  how  well  they  will  bear  transportation."  The 
verification  of  this  test  was  made  on  the  homeward  journey, 
ofttimes  amid  heavy  seas  and  fierce  storms,  which  was 
accomplished  as  far  as  Unalaska  without  accident  or 
the  loss  of  a  single  one  of  the  little  herd.  The  land- 
ing of  these  patient  animals — trembling,  hobbled  and 
bruised— September  21st,  on  American  soil,  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  industrial  interests  of 
the  residents  of  our  Arctic  and  sub-Arctic  possessions. 
It  has  been  justly  described  as  one  of  the  most  noteworthy 
events  of  the  nineteenth  century.     As  one  has  put  it : 

This  patient,  noble  creature  now  enters  prominently  into  hu- 
man world-history.  With  great  qualities  he  has  come  to  stay. 
A  mighty  century  closes  with  the  eyes  of  the  world  on  the  two 
extremes  of  the  globe,  the  frozen  Arctics  and  the  burning  trop- 
ics, Alaska  and  Africa.  Two  noble  animals,  creatures  of  bur- 
den, products  of  the  zone,  stand  forth  prominently — the  rein- 
deer and  the  camel.  In  the  Arctics,  no  matter  how  great  the 
facilities  of  transportation  by  steam  and  electricity,  there  will 
be  points  that  can  be  reached  only  by  this  animal.* 

On  his  return  to  Washington  Dr.  Jackson  renewed  his  efforts 
to  secure  the  endorsement  and  support  of  Congress  in  the  further 
prosecution  of  this  undertaking,  so  auspiciously  begun.  In  this 
he  was  ably  assisted  by  the  Hon.  H.  M.  Teller,  United  States 
senator  from  Colorado,  who  drew  up  a  bill  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  Senate,  appropriating  $  1 5 ,000,  "  to  be  expended  under 
the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  for  the  purpose  of 
introducing  and  maintaining  in  the  territory  of  Alaska,  reindeer 
for  domestic  purposes." 

This  bill  was  approved  by  the  Senate  on  the  23d  of 
May,  1892.  It  was  then  placed  on  the  calendar  of  the 
House,  but  here  adverse  influences  prevailed  and  it  failed 
to  pass  when  brought  up  for  consideration  and  action. 
This  lack  of  sympathy  and  active  cooperation  on  the  part 
of  the  representatives  of  the  nation  was  a  disappointment 
at  the  time,  but  it  was  not  taken  seriously  by  the  prime 

'  Woman^s  Home  Jlission  Magazine,  M.  E.  Church,  January,  1897. 


392  SHELDON  JACKSON 

mover  in  this  euterprise,  who,  in  confident  expectation 
of  ultimate  success,  determined  to  carry  out  the  arrange- 
ments he  had  made  in  the  preceding  summer  for  the 
transportation  of  a  larger  herd  of  deer  to  some  point  on 
the  American  side  of  the  Ai'ctic  or  Bering  Sea.  At 
Unalaska,  where  the  usual  stop  was  made  on  the  out- 
ward voyage,  he  found  the  reindeer,  which  he  had  left  on 
Amaknak  Island,  in  good  condition  and  apparently  as 
much  at  home  as  if  they  had  wintered  on  the  coast  of 
Asia.  Several  fawns  were  noticed  with  the  herd  and  in 
the  following  season  the  number  gained  by  natural  in- 
crease was  much  larger.'  Thus  another  problem  was 
solved  and  the  way  made  clear  for  further  operations  on 
a  larger  scale.  The  first  step  in  connection  with  the 
permanent  establishment  of  the  reindeer  industry  was 
the  selection  of  a  suitable  location  for  a  station  and  in- 
dustrial school,  the  main  feature  of  which  was  to  be 
instruction  in  the  management  and  propagation  of  the 
deer  by  herders  of  experience  secured  for  the  purpose 
from  the  coast  of  Siberia.  At  the  head  of  Port  Clarence, 
in  the  vicinity  of  Cape  Spenser  on  the  eastern  coast  of 
Bering  Sea,  a  spot  was  found  which  seemed  to  fulfill  the 
necessary  conditions  for  the  purpose,  and  here,  on  the 
29th  of  June,  Dr.  Jackson  located  and  set  apart  a  station 
by  raising  the  stars  and  stripes  while  the  marines  fired  a  sa- 
lute with  rifles  "as  the  flag  gracefully  filled  to  the  breeze."  ' 
In  honour  of  the  friend  and  able  advocate  of  this  enter- 
prise it  was  named  the  "Teller  Eeindeer  Station."  ' 

^This  little  herd  which  was  left  to  shift  for  itself  was  subject  to 
heavy  losses  for  lack  of  care  and  in  a  few  years  had  disappeared. 

*  Reindeer  Report  of  Superintendent  Miner  "W.  Bruce,  1893,  p.  53. 

'  Here  in  winter  the  northern  lights  are  often  seen,  and  are  some- 
times startling  in  their  brilliance  and  magnificence.  The  north  star 
is  in  euch  a  position  that  if  a  pendulum  were  suspended  from  it  the 
lower  end  would  swing  almost  directly  over  the  Btation. — Miner  W. 
Bruce. 


'   ^- 


I.   Sheldon  Jackson  landing  the  first  herd  of  domesticated  reindeer 
in  America,  July  4,    1892.     2.  The  Herd.     3.  The  family  team. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER  393 

A  few  days  later,  lumber  and  building  material  were 
lauded  at  this  poiut  and  a  frame  bouse  was  erected  by  the 
carpenters  of  the  Bem^  and  a  detail  of  assistants.  Mean- 
while,, the  superintendent  of  the  new  station  constructed 
two  "dugouts"  for  himself  and  assistants,  to  be  occu- 
pied during  the  severity  of  the  winter  season.  From  this 
place,  the  nearest  good  harbour  to  Bering  Strait  on  the 
American  side,  five  visits  were  made  to  Siberia,  during 
the  season,  for  the  purchase  and  transportation  of  rein- 
deer. On  the  evening  of  the  3d  of  July,  the  Bear 
anchored  off  the  station  with  its  cargo  of  live  stock.  The 
surf  was  too  heavy  for  landing  that  evening,  but  early 
the  next  morning  the  ship,  which  was  gaily  decorated 
with  flags  in  honour  of  the  day,— July  4th, — sent  out 
its  launch  with  the  first  load  of  reindeer  ever  transported 
to  the  mainland  of  the  continent  of  America.  With  this 
herd,  which  numbered  fifty-three  head,  there  were  four 
Siberian  herders  who  remained  at  the  station  until  the 
opening  of  the  next  season.  On  the  second  trip  across 
the  Strait,  two  anchors  were  broken  by  heavy  ice-floes 
and  at  one  point  on  the  Siberian  coast  the  ship  was  held 
fast  in  an  ice-pack  for  a  whole  week.  At  every  landing- 
place  on  this  bleak  and  dangerous  coast  difficulties  were 
experienced,  in  consequence  of  dense  fogs,  drifting  ice, 
or  heavy  surf.  Under  these  adverse  circumstances,  171 
head  of  reindeer  were  purchased  and  transported  to  the 
station  at  Port  Clarence  during  the  summer  of  1892. 

In  the  execution  of  this  matter-of-fact  enterprise,  rather 
than  in  its  inception,  there  is  a  touch  of  real  romance, 
and  a  degree  of  real  heroism  and  dogged  persistency 
which  lias  seldom  been  surpassed. 

During  the  second  session  of  the  Fifty-second  Congress, 
March  3,  1893,  an  appropriation  of  $6,000  was  made  for 
the  purchase  of  additional  animals,  and  the  management 
of  this  fund  was  laid  ujion  the  Commissioner  of  Education 


394  SHELDON  JACKSON 

and  was  included  in  the  work  of  the  Superintendent  of 
Instruction  for  Alaska.  Thus,  for  the  first  time,  the  gen- 
eral government  gave  its  official  sanction  to,  and  made 
provision  for,  this  reindeer  enterprise  for  the  benefit  of 
Alaska. 

During  the  spring  of  1893,  seventy-nine  fawns  were 
born  to  the  herd  at  the  Teller  station. 

The  loss  to  the  herd  since  the  date  of  its  landing, 
mainly  from  causes  which  could  be  avoided  in  the  future, 
was  twenty-seven.  This  reduced  number,  with  the  in- 
crease already  noted,  made  a  total  of  223  animals  in  good 
condition.  To  this  goodly  number,  127  more  were  added 
during  the  summer  cruise,  which  was  made  in  connection 
with  the  care  and  oversight  of  the  schools.  In  the  season 
of  1894,  186  were  added  by  increase  and  127  by  purchase. 

With  the  introduction  of  improved  methods  of  treat- 
ment and  care,  under  the  skillful  handling  of  herders 
imported  from  Lapland,  the  annual  loss  to  the  herds  was 
greatly  reduced,  and  a  great  advance  was  made  upon  the 
system  of  training  in  the  industrial  school. 

These  herders,  seven  in  number,  with  their  wives  and 
children,  were  brought  over  to  the  United  States  by 
Mr.  Wm.  A.  Kjellman,  of  Madison,  Wis.,  who  had  been 
selected  as  superintendent  of  the  Teller  Eeindeer  Station. 

During  the  winter  of  1892-93,  the  superintendent  of 
the  herd  trained  twelve  deer  to  draw  sleds,  and  with  two 
teams  selected  from  this  number  made  a  very  satisfactory 
journey  to  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  sixty  miles  distant,  and 
return,  in  the  month  of  March.  On  this  trip  he  picketed 
the  deer  at  halting-places  in  the  neighbourhood  of  vil- 
lages, in  which  there  were  from  100  to  300  native  dogs, 
but  in  no  instance  were  they  molested.  Thus  another 
difficulty  that  was -anticipated  by  some  in  connection 
with  this  venture  was  met  and  resolved. 

In  September,  1893,  the  herd  at  Teller  numbered  346. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         395 

lu  August  of  the  folio wiug  year,  119  head  were  taken 
from  it  and  entrusted  to  the  care  of  Mr.  W.  T.  Lopp, 
missionary  of  the  Congregational  Church,  in  charge  of 
the  station  at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales.  In  the  early  days 
of  this  enterprise,  the  only  places  where  reindeer  herds 
could  be  successfully  cared  for  with  a  view  to  the  train- 
ing of  reliable  apprentices  among  the  Eskimos,  was  at 
the  missionary  stations,  which  had  been  located  in  ad- 
vance of  this  movement,  at  the  natural  centres  of  native 
population,  and  had  the  further  advantage  of  pupils 
available  for  this  purpose,  who  were  being  taught  the 
use  of  the  English  language. 

In  an  official  paper  relating  to  the  location  and  distri- 
bution of  the  reindeer  herds,  the  Hon.  W.  T.  Harris, 
Commissioner  of  Education,  says  : — 

"It  is  evident  that  the  missionary  stations  furnish  the 
only  safe  centres  for  the  locations  of  herds  aud  the  es- 
tablishment of  schools  of  instruction  in  the  rearing  of  the 
reindeer  and  the  training  of  them  to  harness.  The  mis- 
sions ascertain  the  capable  and  teachable  youth  among 
the  natives.  They  are  able  at  any  time  to  furnish  a  list  of 
the  natives  in  their  vicinities  noted  for  good  character. 
At  each  of  these  stations,  twenty  or  thirty  youth  selected 
from  a  village  population  of  300  or  more,  can  be  put  in 
training  as  herdsmen  and  teamsters.  No  matter  how 
large  the  government  appropriation  should  be,  therefore, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  connect  the  reindeer  instruction 
aud  the  establishment  of  permanent  herds  with  these  mis- 
sionary stations."  ' 

In  these  schools,  which  thus  combined  the  educational 
and  the  industrial  courses  of  study,  some  of  the  brightest 
young  men  were  apprenticed  for  five  years  under  skillful 
Lapp  or  Finn  instructors.  With  careful  training  under 
such  influences,  the  Eskimos  make  excellent  lierders  and 
'  Senate  Document,  59tb  Congress,  No.  483,  p.  125. 


396  SHELDON  JACKSON 

are  thus  preparing  the  way  for  the  extension  of  this  new 
industry  all  over  Arctic  aud  sub-Arctic  Alaska. 

In  the  contract  made  with  the  officials  in  charge  of  the 
mission  stations  it  was  stipulated  that  the  government 
would  fui'uish  one  hundred  or  more  reindeer  free  of 
charge  as  a  loan,  subject  to  recall  if  the  conditions  of  the 
loan  were  not  complied  with,  for  the  term  of  five  years. 
In  return  for  this  favour,  the  mission  was  required  to 
feed,  clothe,  and  care  for  the  native  api^rentices  during 
this  period,  aud  at  its  close  return  the  original  number  of 
reindeer  loaned  them.  Of  the  increase  year  by  year  at 
least  eighty  per  cent,  became  the  property  of  the  mission. 
In  some  cases,  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  net  increase  was 
given  to  the  instructors.  It  was  found  to  be  good  policy, 
also,  to  give  to  each  apj)rentice  the  increase  of  a  certain 
part  of  the  herd  which  had  been  assigned  to  him,  so  that 
at  the  conclusion  of  his  term  of  service  he  might  have 
fifty  or  more  deer,  to  brand  as  his  own.  In  all  the  ar- 
rangements which  were  made  from  time  to  time  with 
respect  to  the  distribution  of  the  several  herds,  it  was  the 
settled  policy  of  the  government  to  give  an  increasingly 
large  percentage  of  fawns  to  the  natives  as  they  became 
more  proficient  and  skillful  in  handling  the  animals  en- 
trusted to  their  care. 

As  a  result  of  this  policy,  the  government  owned  thirty 
per  cent,  of  all  the  reindeer  in  Alaska  in  1905  ;  the  mis- 
sion stations  twenty-one  per  cent.  ;  the  Lapps  eleven  per 
cent.  ;  while  the  natives  had  acquired  the  ownership  of 
thirty-eight  per  cent. 

The  last  importation  of  reindeer  from  Siberia  was  in 
the  year  1902,  when,  after  many  discouraging  and  exas- 
perating experiences,  the  largest  number  which  could  be 
secured  out  of  a  possible  limit  of  300,  set  by  the  Eussian 
government,  was  thirty.  At  the  close  of  this  season  an 
embargo  was  promulgated  against  the  exportation  of  rein- 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER  397 

deer  from  the  Russian  possessions  and  none  Lave  been  im- 
ported since  that  date.  The  whole  number  imported  into 
Alaska  previous  to  this  interdict  was  1,280.  From  these 
have  sprung  all  the  animals  in  the  numerous  herds  which 
are  now  distributed  over  Western  and  Northern  Alaska. 

The  first  training  schools,  as  already  intimated,  were 
,  located  at  the  mission  stations. 

In  course  of  time,  it  was  deemed  expedient  to  establish 
relief  stations  not  directly  under  missionary  control.  To 
these  were  added  government  stations  also,  at  important 
points,  which  were  conducted  independently  of  the  mis- 
sions, but  all  were  under  the  control  of  the  General  Agent 
of  Education  for  Alaska.  The  existence  of  the  three 
classes  of  stations  gave  opportunity,  at  a  later  date,  to  com- 
pare the  relative  value,  efliciency,  and  economy  of  each  ; 
and  from  the  data  given  in  the  annual  reports  it  appears 
that  in  all  these  respects  the  credit  balance  was  on  the 
side  of  the  mission  station.  With  respect  to  the  economy 
of  this  administration, — a  matter  which  has  often  been  dis- 
puted by  the  opponents  of  the  policy  advocated  by  the 
Commissioner  of  Education, — the  tabulated  statements 
show  that  by  far  the  heaviest  item  of  expense  year  by 
year  has  been  the  feeding  and  clothing  of  the  apprentices  ; 
and  that  the  government  stations  apart  from  the  missions 
havecostaboutthree  times  as  much  as  those  under  their  care. 

Before  the  first  decade  of  this  industrial  venture  had 
closed,  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  work  abun- 
dantly confirmed  the  conviction  that  prompted  it  and 
proved  the  wisdom,  in  general,  of  the  plans  by  which  it 
had  been  carried  on.  During  this  period,  it  was  shown 
by  practical  demonstration  that  the  trained  reindeer 
could  be  depended  upon  to  travel  swiftly  over  long  dis- 
tances, draw  heavy  loads  ;  and  also  to  secure  his  own  food 
above  ground  and  under  the  snow, — over  a  vast  extent  of 
territory  north  of  the  agricultural  belt  iu  Alaska. 


398  SHELDON  JACKSON 

It  is  said  by  those  who  are  familiar  with  all  the  differ- 
ent modes  of  transportation  in  Arctic  regions,  that,  on  a 
long  journey,  a  dog-team  canuot  haul  sufficient  provi- 
sions through  an  uninhabited  country  to  feed  themselves. 
For  such  joui-neys,  the  sujjeriority  of  the  reindeer  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  one  accustomed  to  the  harness 
can  travel  with  200  pounds  on  a  sled  over  mountains  and 
plains  without  road  or  trail  for  days  or  weeks  at  a  time  ; 
and  all  the  while  keep  in  good  condition  by  browsing  on 
the  moss  or  lichen,  which  he  finds  at  halting-places  by 
the  way,  by  digging  down  to  it  with  his  shovel-like  hoofs 
through  the  snow. 

The  reindeer  furnish  their  owners  with  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter,  and  nearly  all  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  flesh,  blood, 
and  entrails  are  eaten.  The  skin  makes  the  garments,  beds, 
and  tents.  The  skin  of  the  leg,  which  is  covered  with  fine 
short  hair,  makes  the  boots.  From  the  antlers  are  made  many 
of  their  implements,  drill  bows  for  lighting  fires,  knife  handles, 
etc.  The  sinews  of  the  deer  make  the  native  thread,  and  a 
most  excellent  thread  it  is.  The  bones,  soaked  in  oil,  are 
burned  for  fuel,  and  in  addition  to  alj  this  the  deer  furnishes 
his  master  with  the  means  of  transportation  and  indeed  to  a 
large  extent  assists  in  forming  the  character  of  the  man.* 

Thus  the  introduction  of  domesticated  reindeer  into 
Alaska  has  opened  up  new  avenues  of  commerce  and 
travel  over  vast  stretches  of  ice  and  snow ;  furnished  a 
new  food  supply  to  a  starving  people  ;  developed  new  in- 
dustries of  an  exceedingly  practical  character  and  is  to- 
day rapidly  solving  the  problem  of  the  perpetuation  and 
civilization  of  the  Eskimos  In  our  great  northland  pos- 
sessions. It  has  been  said  with  truth  that  if  Dr.  Jackson 
had  done  no  other  thing  than  this,  his  name  would 
deserve  the  praise  of  all  lovers  of  humanity. 

'  "  Notes  on  Reindeer,"  by  Captain  C.   L.  Hooper,  U.  S.  Eevenne 
Cutter  Corwin,  Senate  Document  No.  204,  pp.  113-114. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         399 

The  first  practical  test  of  the  endurauce  of  reindeer  in 
Alaska,  and  their  adaptability  to  winter  travel,  was  made 
in  the  winter  of  1896-97,  under  the  direction  of  IMr. 
W.  A.  Kjellman,  superintendent  of  the  station  at  Teller. 
Starting  from  this  station  on  the  10th  of  December,  with 
nine  sleds  and  seventeen  head  of  reindeer,  he  travelled 
southward  to  a  station  on  the  Kuskokwim  River,  about  a 
thousand  miles  distant.  ' '  The  course,  while  travelled  by 
compass,  was  a  zigzag  one  over  unbeaten  tracks,  in  order 
to  better  learn  the  extent  and  abundance  of  moss  pastur- 
age. Scaling  high  mountain  ranges,  shooting  down  pre- 
cipitous declivities  with  toboggan  speed,  plodding  through 
valleys  filled  with  deeply -drifted  snow,  laboriously  cut- 
ting a  way  through  the  man-high  underbrush  in  the 
forest,  or  steering  across  the  trackless  tundra,  never  be- 
fore trodden  by  the  foot  of  white  men  ;  gliding  over  the 
hard-crusted  snow,  or  wading  through  slush  two  feet  deej) 
on  imperfectly  frozen  rivers,  unknown  to  geographers, 
were  the  experiences  of  the  trip."  '  This  list  does  not 
exhaust  the  experiences  of  the  journey,  however,  which 
has  been  fitly  characterized  as  ' '  the  most  remarkable  one 
ever  made  by  reindeer."  One  day  there  came  an  ''  arctic 
blizzard,"  against  which  neither  man  nor  beast  could 
stand  upright.  The  reindeer  were  blown  down — one  was 
literally  swept  off  the  mountainside, — the  loaded  sleds 
were  overturned,  and  the  men,  throwing  themselves  flat 
and  thrusting  their  big  hunting  knives  into  the  ground 
between  the  rocks,  clung  to  their  handles  and  to  one  an- 
other, to  keep  from  being  blown  away.  About  a  week 
after  this  extraordinary  experience,  the  party  encountered 
a  succession  of  blinding  snow-storms  and  were  reduced 
to  such  straits  that  they  were  obliged  to  cut  the  railing 
from  their  sleds  for  fuel.  "When  the  last  of  these  storms 
had  passed  away,  the  temperature  fell  to  73°  below  zero, 

^  Report  on  Introductiou  of  Reindeer  for  1903,  p.  20. 


400  SHELDON  JACKSON 

* '  causing  even  the  reindeer  to  break  loose  from  their 
tethers  and  tramp  ceaselessly  around  the  tents  for  warmth." 
Near  the  close  of  the  journey  there  was  one  long  stretch 
where,  contrary  to  information,  no  moss  was  found. 
Hence,  it  was  necessary  to  push  on  continuously  for  four 
days  and  three  nights,  without  a  morsel  of  food  for  the 
deer  until  a  wooded  tract  was  reached,  where  trees  were 
cut  down  that  the  deer  might  feed  on  the  black  moss 
which  hung  from  them.  On  this  terrible  march,  five  of 
the  deer  fell  dead  or  helpless  in  their  traces.  The  return 
journey  was  made  to  Teller  without  serious  adventure. 
Thus  a  round  trip  of  2,000  miles  on  sledges,  the  longest 
on  record,  was  made  over  an  unmarked  and  unknown 
route,  in  the  worst  and  most  inclement  season  of  the  year. 
With  a  better  knowledge  of  the  route  some  of  these  dread- 
ful experiences  might  have  been  avoided,  but  the  experi- 
ment served  its  purpose  in  proving  the  capabilities  of  the 
deer  for  making  such  a  journey,  in  case  of  necessity. 

Not  long  after  the  return  of  this  expedition,  a  case  of 
urgent  necessity  did  arise,  which  afforded  another  prac- 
tical test  of  the  endurance  of  tliese  hardy  animals  and 
their  value  in  connection  with  relief  expeditions  to  those 
who  were  exposed  to  deadly  peril,  and  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary reach  of  human  helj). 

In  the  month  of  October,  1897,  reliable  information 
was  received  at  Washington  that  eight  whaling  ships 
were  ice-bound  near  Point  Barrow,  and  that  about  300 
seamen  on  board  these  vessels  were  in  danger  of  perishing 
from  hunger  unless  succour  could  reach  them  early  in  the 
spring.  To  meet  this  emergency.  President  McKinley 
called  a  special  session  of  his  cabinet  and  invited  Dr. 
Jackson  to  attend  it  and  give  his  views  as  to  the  best 
method  of  relief.  In  brief  his  suggestion  was  to  send  the 
revenue  cutter,  Bear,  then  under  the  command  of  Cap- 
tain Tuttle,  to  some  point  on  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea, 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         401 

within  reach  of  Point  Rodney  and  Cape  Prince  of  Wales, 
where  reindeer  herds  were  stationed,  and  thence  to  pro- 
ceed overland  with  dogs  and  reindeer,  driving  a  herd  be- 
fore them  to  be  slaughtered  for  food  at  the  end  of  the 
journey.  This  suggestion  was  regarded  as  the  most 
feasible  plan  of  relief  submitted,  and  in  substance  it  was 
adopted.  An  expedition  of  this  kind  by  sea  and  land,  to 
the  farthest  limit  of  the  continent  in  the  dead  of  winter, 
was  fraught  with  great  danger,  however,  and  the  officials 
of  the  Department  of  the  Treasury,  to  whom  this  under- 
taking was  committed,  called  for  volunteers.  The  officers 
of  the  Bear,  and  other  Arctic  explorers  who  had  been 
associated  with  them  in  former  cruises,  promptly  re- 
sponded to  the  call.  From  this  volunteer  force.  Lieu- 
tenants D.  H.  Jarvis  and  E.  P.  Bertholf  and  Dr. 
S.  J.  Call,  surgeon  of  the  vessel,  were  selected  for  the 
leaders  of  the  overland  i)ortion  of  the  journey. 

On  the  29th  day  of  November,  the  Bear  started  in  a 
blinding  snow-storm  from  the  harbour  of  Port  Townsend, 
on  this  perilous  journey.  The  objective  point  in  Bering 
Sea  was  Sledge  Island.  When  within  seventy-five  miles 
of  the  island,  the  ice  closed  in  upon  the  vessel  so  closely 
and  so  firmly  that  the  attempt  to  reach  it  was  given  up. 
After  beating  about  in  search  of  an  open  passage  for  a 
time,  the  vessel  was  headed  for  a  village  on  Cape  Van- 
couver. A  landing  at  this  point  meant  an  increase  to  the 
overland  journey  of  about  800  miles,  but  it  seemed  to  be 
the  only  place  where  the  rescue  party  could  be  put  ashore 
at  that  season  of  the  year.  When  this  part  of  her  mis- 
sion was  accomplished,  the  Bear  returned  to  Dutch  Har- 
bour, Unalaska,  for  the  winter.  From  a  village  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  landing-place,  Lieutenant  Jarvis  secured 
a  guide  and  some  dog-teams,  and,  on  the  18th  of  Decem- 
ber, started  northward  for  the  reindeer  stations  already 
mentioned.     After  many  days  of  hardships  and  peril 


402  SHELDON  JACKSON 

these  stations  were  reached  and  a  herd  of  435  deer,  of 
which  eighteen  were  broken  to  harness,  were  secured. 
At  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  Mr.  W.  T.  Lopp,  the  mission- 
ary in  charge,  and  Artisarlook,  a  superintendent  of  one 
of  the  herds,  were  persuaded  to  accompany  the  party. 
From  this  place,  Lieutenants  Jar  vis  and  Bertholf,  with 
Dr.  Call,  continued  the  journey  northward  with  dog- 
teams,  depending  upon  reindeer  meat  to  feed  the  dogs, 
when  they  could  not  secure  fish.  Missionary  Lopp,  with 
his  herders,  took  charge  of  the  deer.  Thus  equipped, 
the  party  pushed  on  through  the  Arctic  night  and  cold 
and  storms,  driving  the  animals  intended  for  food  before 
them.  This  portion  of  the  journey,  by  the  route  travelled, 
was  not  far  short  of  a  thousand  miles. 

On  the  29th  of  March,  the  destitute  whalers  were 
reached,  after  an  overland  journey  of  three  mouths  and 
twelve  days,  and  their  immediate  wants  were  supplied. 
The  relief  came  none  too  soon,  for  bad  sanitary  conditions 
and  the  lack  of  proper  food  had  brought  the  imprisoned 
men  to  the  verge  of  great  suffering,  and  sickness  of  a 
dangerous  character  had  already  broken  out  among  them. 
A  supply  of  fresh  meat  from  the  reindeer  herd,  improved 
sanitary  conditions,  imposed  under  the  authority  of  gov- 
ernment ofBcers,  and  the  revival  of  hope  in  the  breasts 
of  the  men  soon  wrought  a  marvellous  change  in  the  situ- 
ation. About  245  of  the  herd  were  slaughtered  for  food. 
No  further  inconvenience  or  suffering  was  experienced 
up  to  the  arrival  of  the  Bear  in  the  early  summer  with  a 
full  supply  of  stores  and  provisions. 

With  a  view  to  forestalling  a  calamity  of  this  kind  in 
the  future,  a  permanent  reindeer  station  was  established 
in  the  vicinity  of  Point  Barrow.  The  ultimate  cost  of 
this  relief  expedition  was  nearly  1100,000,  or  almost  one- 
half  as  much  as  the  total  of  the  appropriations  made  by 
Congress  for  the  introduction  of  reindeer  into  Alaska. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         403 

Had  there  been  a  herd  of  deer  in  the  vicinity  of  this  dis- 
aster, as  there  has  been  ever  since,  relief  could  have  been 
afforded  at  once,  and  the  necessity  for  a  journey  so  long 
and  perilous  and  an  expense  so  enormous  would  have  been 
avoided. 

In  a  special  message  to  the  Fifty-fifth  Congress,  Presi- 
dent McKinley  paid  this  well-deserved  tribute  to  the 
leaders  of  the  expedition  : — 

The  hardships  and  perils  encountered  by  the  members  of  the 
overland  expedition  in  their  great  journey  through  an  almost 
uninhabited  region,  a  barren  waste  of  ice  and  snow,  facing 
death  itself  every  day  for  nearly  four  months,  over  a  route 
never  before  travelled  by  white  men,  with  no  refuge  but  at  the 
end  of  the  journey,  carrying  relief  to  275  distressed  citizens  of 
our  country,  all  make  another  glorious  page  in  the  history  of 
American  seamen.  They  reflect  by  their  heroic  and  gallant 
struggles  the  highest  credit  upon  themselves  and  the  govern- 
ment which  they  faithfully  served.  I  commend  this  heroic 
crew  to  the  grateful  consideration  of  Congress  and  the  Ameri- 
can people. 

Referring  to  this  expedition  and  the  comments  in  gen- 
eral which  had  been  made  upon  it,  the  governor  of 
Alaska,  the  lion.  John  G.  Brady,  stated  in  his  annual  re- 
port to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  1899  : — 

Who  has  ever  seen  a  single  notice  of  this  event  to  the  credit 
of  the  reindeer,  the  missionary,  or  the  native  ?  Attention  was 
called  last  year  to  the  heroism  of  the  officers.  It  will  surely 
compare  with  any  act  of  bravery  that  has  occurred  within  re- 
cent years,  and  we  think  that  Congress  should  not  allow  an- 
other session  to  pass  without  giving  them  due  recognition  also. 

It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  the  governor 
had  in  mind  the  fact  that  on  this  remarkable  journey  the 
herders  and  drivers  were  all  Eskimos,  and  that  in  addi- 
tion to  the  splendid  service  rendered  by  Missionary  Lopp 
the  party  were  aided  and  sheltered  at  every  mission 


404  SHELDON  JACKSON 

station  visited  en  route,  as  well  as  at  the  mission  at  Point 
Barrow.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  in  the  telling  of  the 
story  that  Mr.  Lopp  and  his  coniijanion,  instead  of  re- 
turning as  did  the  others  in  the  Bear,  made  the  journey 
in  reverse  order  over  the  same  desolate  wastes  of  ice  and 
snow  with  a  dog-team,  as  reindeer  could  not  be  spared 
from  the  herd  at  Barrow,  reaching  his  home  after  an  ab- 
sence of  nearly  five  mouths.  During  all  this  time,  Mr. 
Lopp  had  left  his  heroic  wife  and  dependent  children 
alone  at  the  station,  the  only  white  persons  among  400 
natives.  His  confidence  in  them  was  not  misplaced,  how- 
ever, for  during  his  absence  Mrs.  Lopp  received  nothing 
but  courtesy  and  kindness. 

An  interesting  adventure  in  reindeer  sleddiug,  of  which 
Sheldon  Jackson  was  the  principal  actor,  is  thus  described 
by  Mrs.  Alice  Palmer  Henderson  : —  ' 

Reindeer  driving  must  be  most  exhilarating.  They  go 
straight  ahead,  over  any  obstacle,  up  hill  and  down  dale  with  a 
determination  to  "get  there"  worthy  of  a  ward  politician, 
which  reminds  me  of  Dr.  Jackson's  experience.  It  was  a  dis- 
mal, drizzly  day,  and  the  six  miles  back  to  the  cutter  seemed  to 
stretch  into  sixty.  He  decided  to  ride  back  on  a  sled  over  the 
wet  and  slippery  tundra.  With  a  Lapp  at  the  head  of  each  deer, 
for  the  reindeer  were  fresh,  to  steady  them,  he  started.  There 
was  a  little  ravine  ahead,  perhaps  ten  feet  wide ;  the  deer  took 
matters  into  their  own  hands  by  leaping  across.  Now  the 
worthy  doctor  is  not  a  rider  to  hounds,  besides,  the  reindeer 
had  not  informed  him  that  they  meant  to  "  take  the  ditch,"  so 
they  and  their  reverend  driver  parted  company  hurriedly,  and 
without  words  of  farewell.  The  doctor  turned  a  fantastic  somer- 
sault, in  no  wise  comporting  with  the  dignity  of  the  moderator 
of  the  Presbyterian  Assembly — the  onlookers  insist  it  was  a 
double  somersault— and  landed  unhurt,  but  greatly  surprised, 
on  some  bushes  in  the  bottom  of  the  ravine.  Decidedly  it  gave 
him  quite  a  turn.  "Now,  doctor,"  said  I,  when  he  told  me 
about  it,  "honestly,  I  won't  tattle,  but  was  your  language 
seemly  to  one  of  your  cloth?"     "I  made  no  remarks  what- 

1  "  The  Eainbow's  End,  Alaska,"  p.  205. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         405 

ever,"  he  replied.  "  I  was  bereft  of  speech  or  breath  to  frame 
it.  The  young  lieutenant  who  had  accompanied  me  from  the 
Bear  just  threw  himself  down  in  a  transport  and  howled.  As 
soon  as  I  got  together  enough  fragments  of  breath  to  join  in,  I 
did  so.  It  was  one  of  the  funniest  things  I  ever  saw,  if  the  joke 
was  on  myself. ' ' 

There  is  nothiug  in  the  records  of  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion to  show  that  its  efficient  agent  in  Alaska  had  availed 
himself  of  this  new  mode  of  transportation  in  visiting  his 
Arctic  missions  and  schools  after  this  humiliating  experi- 
ence ;  but  it  did  not  repress  his  enthusiasm  in  advocating 
the  general  use  of  these  nimble  animals  for  a  like  purpose 
when  driven  by  people  who  knew  their  peculiar  ways  and 
had  learned  the  knack  of  handling  them  in  the  crossing 
of  difficult  ijlaces.^ 

With  the  incoming  of  a  host  of  adventurers,  after  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  the  Klondike  and  along  the  valley  of 
the  Yukon,  the  matter  of  transportation  became  an  im- 
portant consideration.  As  the  result  of  several  tests, 
wherever  reindeer  could  be  obtained,  it  was  found  that 
they  could  draw  a  much  heavier  load  than  the  dogs  which 
were  broken  to  harness,  could  travel  farther  in  a  day,  and 
could  be  taken  on  long  journeys  without  the  necessity  for 
making  any  provision  beforehand  for  their  own  food 
supply. 

In  his  annual  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in 
1889,  Governor  Brady  says  : — 

The  great  question  is  how  to  get  more  of  these  animals. 
Since  the  excitement  at  Cape  Nome  began,  the  whites  are  be- 

^  As  a  fitting  sequel  to  this  story  it  should  be  said  that  the  sled  was 
righted  after  this  flying  leap,  and  the  rest  of  the  way  the  reindeer  took 
their  Alaskan  friend  over  the  tnndra,  across  the  mountain,  x\\>  and 
down  the  steep  sides  of  the  ravines  and  huided  him  safe  and  sound  on 
thebeach  in  an  astonishingly  short  time. — Uo^ne  Mission  Monthly,  March, 
1897,  p.  107. 


406  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ginning  to  understand  what  utility  is  in  a  reindeer.  There  is 
great  competition  now  for  the  purchase  of  the  skin  for  clothing. 
The  price  has  gone  up  from  $1.50  to  $8  and  $10  for  a  summer 
pelt.  The  meat  brought  in  from  Siberia  by  schooners  was  sell- 
ing at  ^i  per  pound.  The  draft  animals  were  used  last  winter 
in  conveying  government  stores  to  Cape  Nome,  and  in  hauling 
for  the  missionaries,  who  had  claims  on  Anvil  Creek. 

During  the  same  year,  Hank  Summers,  a  pioneer 
resident  of  Northern  Alaska,  when  asked  by  a  reporter  of 
the  Sitka  Alaskan^  what  he  thought  of  the  reindeer  experi- 
ment, said  : — 

The  reindeer  are  the  salvation  of  that  northern  country.  I 
have  used  all  kinds  of  animals  that  could  be  gotten  into  that 
country ;  but  I  will  never  use  anything  else  hereafter  but  the 
reindeer.  They  are  just  the  proper  animal  for  our  use,  and  the 
government  did  wisely  when  it  acted  upon  the  suggestion  of 
Dr.  Jackson  and  secured  the  reindeer.  They  are  breeding 
quite  rapidly  and  find  an  abundance  of  food. 

When  asked  how  the  natives  took  to  the  reindeer,  Mr. 
Summers  replied  : — 

They  are  more  than  delighted  with  them ;  and  why  should 
they  not  be?  They  furnish  them  with  milk — a  luxury  they 
have  never  had  before,  and  they  furnish  them  with  the  best 
mode  of  conveyance  they  have  ever  had  on  land.  The  flesh 
keeps  them  from  starving,  while  the  hides  furnish  them  with 
clothes.  And  they  know  how  to  handle  them,  also,  being 
much  more  expert  than  the  Lapps.  In  fact  I  would  not  have 
any  one  else  to  handle  them  for  me,  and  hire  no  one  but  natives. 
Yes,  I  cannot  say  too  much  in  praise  of  the  reindeer.  They 
are  a  decided  success. 

When  Mr.  Summers'  attention  was  called  to  the  facts 
that  all  the  papers  in  Alaska  except  the  ^?asfcfm,  "had 
scored  Dr.  Jackson  and  the  government  for  bringing  the 
reindeer  into  Alaska,  and  Governor  Brady  for  favouring 
the  plan,  and  that  one  grand  jury  had  gone  so  far  out  of 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         407 

its  way  as  to  endeavour  to  besmirch  the  character  of  Dr. 
Jackson  for  his  work  in  securing  them,  and  denounced 
the  experiment  as  a  wilful  waste  of  money,"  he  smiled  and 
said : — 

They  simply  do  not  know  what  they  are  talking  about.  They 
are  talking  at  random.  I  have  been  mining  and  packing  along 
the  Yukon,  the  Bering  Sea,  Kotzebue  Sound,  and  in  the 
Arctic  Circle  for  fifteen  years,  and  have  never  found  anything 
so  useful  for  packing,  hauling,  or  for  food  as  the  reindeer. 
They  are  a  Godsend  to  the  country,  and  any  one  who  says  dif- 
ferently simply  does  not  know  what  he  is  talking  about.  Won't 
you  come  and  have  an  "  eye-opener  "  ? 

"No,  thank  you,"  said  the  reporter,  " your  informa- 
tion has  been  considerable  of  an  eye-opener.  I  had  a 
faint  idea  that  the  grand  jury  knew  something  about  rein- 
deer, but  I  was  evidently  mistaken."  ' 

Dana  Thomas,  another  man  of  wide  experience  in  mat- 
ters relating  to  transportation,  wrote  to  Dr.  Jackson,  from 
Kotzebue,  Alaska,  July  1,  1904  : — 

Personally,  I  was  not  particularly  enthusiastic  over  the  rein- 
deer when  I  first  landed  here  two  years  ago,  but  I  am  "  wiser 
to-day  than  yesterday,"  and  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  now 
that  the  introduction  of  domestic  reindeer  into  Alaska  will,  within 
a  few  years,  be  the  main  source  of  the  greatest  good  to  not  only 
the  natives  but  the  whites  as  well.  I  venture  the  assertion  that 
the  reindeer  will  in  the  near  future  bring  more  wealth  and  hap- 
piness to  the  people  of  this  district  than  all  the  gold  and  silver 
that  is  delivered  from  Alaskan  mines.^ 

Such  testimony  from  practical,  far-seeing,  unprejudiced 
men,  furnishes  the  best  reply  to  the  foolish  assertions  and 
slanderous  reports  so  persistently  circulated  concerning 
Dr.  Jackson  and  his  work  in  Alaska. 

Another  important  work  for  which  the  reindeer  were 

'  Reindeer  Report  for  1899,  p.  157. 
*  Reindeer  Report  for  1904,  p.  116. 


408  SHELDON  JACKSON 

found  to  be  specially  adapted  was  the  carrying  of  tlie 
United  States  mail  to  remote  villages  on  the  Arctic  coast 
and  along  the  interior  routes  between  newly- opened 
trading-posts  or  mining  camps.  In  1899,  Dr.  Jackson 
secured  the  establishment  of  the  first  Eeindeer  Post  Eoute 
in  the  United  States. 

It  extended  from  St.  Michaels,  on  the  coast  of  Bering 
Sea,  to  Kotzebue,  within  the  Arctic  Circle.  The  contract 
called  for  three  round  trips  during  the  winter.  The  route 
was  through  a  dreary  wilderness  in  which  there  was  no 
sign  of  beaten  trail,  and  the  distance  going  and  returning 
for  each  trip,  was  1,240  miles.  To  the  satisfaction  of  all 
parties,  this  service  was  rendered  according  to  contract. 
In  autumn  of  the  same  year  another  contract  was  given 
for  a  semi-monthly  winter  service  between  Nome  and 
Eaton  station,  a  distance  of  240  miles.  Five  successful 
trips,  four  of  which  were  with  deer  and  sleds,  were  made 
over  this  route  after  the  first  day  of  March.  ' '  On  the  sec- 
ond trip  the  reindeer  passed  dogs  and  a  bicycle  that  had 
passed  Eaton  two  days  before  the  deer  started  ;  reached 
Nome,  rested  thirty  hours,  and  started  on  the  return  trip 
before  the  dog-team  arrived. "  ^  At  later  dates,  several  new 
routes  were  established  by  the  post-of&ce  department,  in- 
cluding one  between  Kotzebue  and  Point  Barrow.  By 
way  of  Point  Hope  the  distance  between  these  places, 
both  of  which  are  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  is  650  miles. 
The  first  round  trip — 1, 300  miles — was  made  with  a  team 
of  reindeer  continuously,  there  being  no  relay  stations  on 
the  route.  This  was  found  to  be  too  fatiguing  for  the 
team  and  for  a  time  dog-teams,  which  could  be  changed 
at  the  villages  along  the  route,  were  used.  As  soon  there- 
after as  relay  stations  could  be  established,  the  service 
with  reindeer  was  resumed.     The  privileges  which  this 

*  Reindeer  Report  for  1900,  p,  24. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         409 

service  brought  to  the  teachers,  government  agents  and 
traders,  along  this  route  are  continued  to  this  day. 

As  a  result  of  these  practical  tests  it  has  been  ascer- 
tained that  reindeer,  when  used  in  relays  of  about  fifty 
miles  apart,  can  travel  with  a  sled  carrying  200  or  300 
pounds  from  thirty  to  fifty  miles  a  day.  Hence  to  meet 
the  changing  conditions  of  the  country,  and  provide  for 
the  transportation  of  mail,  passengers,  and  a  limited 
amount  of  freight,  chains  of  reindeer  stations,  about  100 
miles  apart,  are  being  gradually  established,  along  all  the 
important  lines  of  travel  on  the  eastern  coasts  of  Bering 
Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  ;  up  the  Yukon,  Koyukuk,  and 
Kuskokwim  Rivers  ;  and  far  into  the  interior,  where  the 
trader  and  the  miner  have  established  their  posts  or  loca- 
ted their  camps.  Along  one  or  two  of  these  trunk  lines, 
which  are  furnishing  increased  facilities  for  reaching  and 
civilizing  the  native  population,  as  well  as  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  resources  of  the  country,  the  "Reindeer 
Express"  is  now  racing  from  stage  to  stage  with  well- 
filled  pouches  of  mail ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  is 
but  the  beginning  of  these  improved  modes  of  transpor- 
tation. A  recent  writer  who  has  been  studying  this  i)rob- 
lem  may  not  be  far  wrong  when  he  says  : — 

It  is  hardly  possible  that,  owing  to  the  large  snow-drifts,  any 
known  form  of  transportation  will  take  its  place.  And  if  the 
mineral  industry  continues  to  grow,  fifty  thousand  teams  of 
reindeer  will  not  supply  the  needs  of  the  inhabitants.' 

As  a  result  of  these  practical  tests,  adverse  criticisms,  based 
upon  ignorance  and  prejudice,  have  been  refuted,  and  the  voice 
of  calumny  has  been  silenced.  It  has  been  proved,  says  a 
government  official,  to  the  satisfaction  of  every  fair-minded  per- 
son, who  has  taken  the  trouble  to  post  himself  on  the  subject, 
that   reindeer   are   an   unqualified   success,  both  as  a  means  of 

'  William  N.  Armstrong,  article  in  Southern  Workman,  April,  1904, 
p.  215. 


410  SHELDON  JACKSON 

transportation  and  as  a  source  of  supplies  for  most  of  the  neces- 
sities of  life  in  the  Alaskan  country. 

The  solving  of  this  problem  in  the  interests  of  a  needy, 
dependent  people,  has  awakened  great  interest  in  scien- 
tific and  commercial  circles  in  foreign  countries,  as  well 
as  in  the  United  States.  Many  letters  of  inquiry  or  of 
congratulation  have  been  received  by  Dr.  Jackson  or  the 
dei^artment  which  he  represents,  from  eminent  men  in 
England,  Germany,  Denmark,  Canada,  Labrador,  and 
other  countries. 

To  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  under  date  of  May  25th, 
1900,  a  distinguished  barrister  in  Canada,  who  has  fol- 
lowed the  development  of  the  reindeer  enterprise  with 
much  interest,  wrote : — 

Your  work  in  Alaska,  through  Dr.  Jackson,  appears  to  be 
ideal  in  every  respect.  At  three  different  points  I  have  written 
Canadians  to  look  carefully  into  his  work,  and  find  that  it  is 
highly  prized  in  the  mining  camps  as  among  scientists. 

Our  coast  line  from  142  degrees  to  the  north  of  Nelson,  some 
3,000  miles,  is  without  a  single  school,  and  I  hope  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  poor  Eskimo  through  schools  and  the  reindeer. 

As  a  result  of  similar  investigations  and  inquiries  a 
number  of  reindeer  purchased  in  Norway  have  already 
been  successfully  introduced  into  Dr.  Grenfell's  immense 
''  parish  "  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Labrador.  In  every  step 
of  this  undertaking  the  officials  of  the  '^Eoyal  National 
Mission  to  Deep  Sea  Fishermen"  availed  themselves  of 
the  experience  and  counsel  of  Dr.  Jackson  and  with  hearty 
enthusiasm  he  responded  to  their  desire  for  information 
and  assistance. 

The  following  letter  from  the  secretary  of  this  mission 
is  interesting  as  showing  Dr.  Jackson's  relation  to  this 
project  and  the  appreciation  manifested  for  his  kindly 
services  and  suggestions  : — 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         411 

Royal  National  Mission  to  Deep  Sea  Fishermen, 
Head  Office,  Bridge  House,  i6i  Queen  Victoria 
Street,  Lofidoti,  igth  December,  igoy. 
Dear  Doctor  Sheldon  Jackson  : — 

You  will  rejoice  to  hear  that  the  reindeer  were  successfully 
started  on  their  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  on  Saturday  last 
(Dec.  14,  1907).  The  arrangements  went  off  without  a  hitch 
of  any  kind,  and  as  they  seem  to  be  experiencing  extremely 
mild  weather  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  there  is  no 
reason  to  anticipate  trouble  in  landing  the  deer  on  their  arrival 
at  St.  Anthony,  North  Newfoundland. 

I  handed  in  the  information  about  this  departure  of  the 
steamsliip  Anita,  with  the  deer  on  board,  to  Renter's  Agency, 
and  they  promised  to  cable  the  news  across  to  America,  so  it  is 
possible  you  are  already  aware  of  the  information  I  am  sending 
you,  but  I  am  so  exceedingly  grateful  to  you  for  all  the  interest 
and  trouble  you  took,  that  1  feel  I  must  send  you  a  special  line 
to  ensure  your  having  early  intimation  of  the  successful  issue 
of  my  efforts  in  connection  with  Dr.  Grenfell's  reindeer  scheme. 
You  will  be  specially  interested  to  learn  that  I  have  reen- 
gaged a  couple  of  your  Alaska  Laplanders. 

Believe  me  to  be, — Faithfully  yours, 

(Signed)  Francis  H.  Wood,  Secretary. 

Thus  on  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America  the  good 
work  inaugurated  by  Sheldon  Jackson  on  the  western 
coast  of  Alaska,  is  being  reproduced  and  extended  by 
Dr.  Greufell,  the  heroic  medical  missionary  and  pioneer 
evangelist  of  Labrador. 

In  summarizing  the  tangible  results  of  the  reindeer  en- 
terprise in  Alaska,  two  facts  should  be  taken  into  the 
account,  viz.  : — 

1.  That  the  deer  landed  at  Teller  Station,  Port  Clar- 
ence, on  the  4th  of  July,  1892,  and  those  added  to  them 
during  that  summer,— 171  all  told— were  the  beginning 
of  the  present  herd  in  Alaska.  No  additions  were  made 
to  it  by  natural  increase  from  the  herd  which  was  im- 
ported from  Lapland. 

2.  That  the  whole  number  of  deer  purchased  in  Siberia 


412  SHELDON  JACKSON 

and  transported  to  Alaska  from  that  date  (1892)  to  the 
present  time  is  1,280. 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
for  1906,  the  latest  complete  report  to  date  the  average 
annual  increase  of  the  several  herds  by  fawns  from  1893 
to  1906  is  quoted  at  forty-four  per  cent.  The  following 
items  taken  from  this  report  are  interesting  as  showing 
the  distribution,  ownership,  number  of  deer  sold  for  food, 
etc.  : — 

Total  number  of  deer  in  Alaska,  distributed  at  fifteen 

central  stations,         ......     12,828 

Number  of  reindeer  sold  by  owners,  butchered,  or  died, 

1892-1906,     .  ......       5>3i4 

Number  of  sled  deer,  broken  to  harness  at  the  several 

stations,  .......  628 

Receipts  for  authorized  sales  of  male  deer  to  butchers 

and  others  for  1906,         .         .         .         .         .  ^10,574 

The  ownership  of  reindeer  in  Alaska  in  1906  was  given 
as  follows : — 

Government,  3,321;  Missions,  2,549;  Laplanders,  1,787; 
Eskimo,  5,153;  White  men,  eighteen.  The  5,153  deer  re- 
ported above  were  owned  by  ninety-nine  Eskimos,  but  it  is 
estimated  that  the  total  number  of  Eskimos  devoting  their  time 
to  the  management  and  care  of  the  herds  is  about  400. 

The  advance  sheets  of  the  annual  report  for  1907  give 
the  total  number  of  reindeer  at  the  several  stations  on 
July  1st,  as  about  15, 840. 

The  statistics  for  the  year  1908  cannot  be  received  or 
tabulated  before  the  autumn  season,  or  the  beginning  of 
the  next  year,  but  at  the  present  rates  •  of  increase  the 
total  number  should  be  about  18,000  by  the  4th  day  of 
July,  1908,  the  sixteenth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of 
the  first  herd  at  Port  Clarence. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  REINDEER         413 

These  figures  indicate,  beyond  all  question,  or  doubt, 
that  the  reindeer  industry  is  now  Mell  established  in 
Alaska.  It  has  become  a  part  of  its  educational  system 
and  has  the  hearty  support  and  good-will  of  every  one  of 
the  ministers  and  teachers  in  the  thirty-eight  or  more 
missionary  settlements  which  now  dot  the  surface  of  the 
habitable  portion  of  the  territory  of  Alaska.  It  has 
awakened  energies  and  ambitions  which  hitherto  have 
lain  dormant ;  it  has  furnished  an  object  lesson  to  the  na- 
tives in  economizing  their  possessions  and  is  doing  its 
part  alongside  of  the  Church  and  school  in  transforming 
"  the  starving,  dying  Eskimos  into  well-fed,  self-support- 
ing, and  self-respecting  American  citizens. ' ' 

Referring  to  this  practical  phase  of  home  mission  work, 
the  well-known  pastor  of  the  New  York  Avenue  Presby- 
terian Church,  Washington,  D.  C,  said  in  a  recent  ad- 
dress : — 

The  work  of  home  missions  brings  something  else  beside 
apocalyptic  visions  for  a  spiritual  rhapsody.  It  is  practical. 
One  of  our  most  devoted  and  honoured  home  missionaries,  Dr. 
Sheldon  Jackson,  saw  in  the  Russian  reindeer  a  substitute  for 
an  improvement  upon  the  Alaskan  dog  for  travel,  and  the  full 
answer  to  the  Alaskan's  isolation  and  hunger  and  destitution. 
It  meant  the  endurance  and  development  of  the  Alaskan. 

In  the  face  of  indifference,  jeer,  and  hostile  attacks,  and  at 
personal  sacrifice,  he  imported  the  reindeer  and  at  last  con- 
firmed him  as  the  exact  need  and  promise  for  that  country. 
We  hear  a  good  deal  about  the  Alaskan  reindeer  to-day,  and 
we  will  hear  more  to-morrow.  The  politician  is  as  eager  now 
to  claim,  as  he  was  before  to  repudiate  and  hinder.  Do  not  let 
it  be  forgotten  that  this  advance  in  civilization  is  due  not  to 
the  politician,  but  to  one  Presbyterian  missionary — and  its 
merit  has  so  commended  itself  to  Dr.  Grenfell,  of  the  Labrador 
Mission,  that  he  announces  his  intention  to  secure  for  Labrador 
what  Dr.  Jackson  secured  for  Alaska.' 

'  Extract  from  home  mission  address,  by  Dr.  Wallace  RadolifEe, 
Feb.  17,  1907. 


414:  SHELDON  JACKSON 

With  appreciation  as  intelligent  and  hearty,  the  late 
Dr.  Tennis  S.  Hamlin,  of  the  Church  of  the  Covenant,  of 
the  same  city,  wrote  : — 

I  regard  Dr.  Jackson  as  the  hero  par  excellence  of  our  fron- 
tier religious  life.  His  courage,  faith,  and  persistence  are 
remarkable.  He  has  a  statesman-like  grasp,  and  in  the  matter 
of  the  reindeer  has  made  "good  "  against  the  doubt  and  cavil 
of  leading  public  men.  He  is  easily  the  old  Hebrew  prophet 
redivivus  as  to  Alaska  in  education,  politics,  and  religion. 

''The  future  of  the  Alaskan  natives,"  says  Mr.  Ed- 
ward B.  Clark,  "seems  to  be  provided  against  want  by 
the  forethought  of  this  missionary  who,  in  the  face  of 
ridicule,  had  the  coui-age  of  his  convictions  so  strongly 
developed  that  he  kept  everlastingly  at  his  work  until 
the  end  was  crowned  with  success.  It  seems  probable 
that  the  Eskimo,  because  of  the  reindeer,  will  be  saved 
from  the  fate  of  other  aboriginal  people  whose  land  has 
been  invaded  and  industries  interrupted  by  the  all-con- 
quering Caucasians."  ^ 

As  a  fitting  close  to  this  chapter,  we  add  the  testimony 
of  Mr.  Eobert  Stein,  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey: — "The  brightest  prospect  for  all  Alaska  lies 
perhaps  in  the  eminently  successful  experiments  of  Dr. 
Sheldon  Jackson  to  introduce  the  tame  Siberian  rein- 
deer." ■' 

'Article   entitled   "How   Jackson   Saved   the  Eskimo,"    Technical 
World  Magazine,  March,  1907,  p.  26. 
^Article  in  Review  of  Eeviews,  June,  1898,  p.  699. 


XIX 

STRENUOUS  LABOURS  AND  MEMORABLE  EVENTS 

(1895-1898) 

"If  a  great  thing  can  be  done  at  all,  it  can  be  done  easily  ;  but  it 
is  that  kind  of  ease  with  which  a  tree  blossoms,  after  long  years  of 
gathering  strength." — John  Buskin. 

"If  a  man  can  write  a  better  book,  preach  a  better  sermon — or 
make  a  better  mouse-trap  than  his  neighbour,  though  he  build  his 
house  in  the  woods,  the  world  will  make  a  beaten  path  to  hia  door." — 
Emerson. 

FKOM  the  reindeer  excursus,  which  has  carried  ua 
far  afield,  we  come  back  in  the  order  of  time  to 
the  events  belonging  to  the  latter  half  of  the  dec- 
ade of  the  nineties.  In  the  spring  of  1895,  Dr.  Jack- 
sou  delegated  the  supervision  of  the  summer's  work  in 
Western  and  Arctic  Alaska  to  his  assistant,  William 
Hamilton,  and  with  a  view  to  inaugurating  some  special 
work  in  the  Sitka  district,  gave  his  personal  attention  to 
that  section  of  the  field. 

A  notable  episode  on  the  journey  to  the  Pacific  coast, 
where  he  had  arranged  to  take  a  steamer  for  Sitka,  was 
a  conference,  assembled  by  previous  appointment,  with 
some  of  the  leading  ministers  of  the  Presbytery  of  Utah, 
which  resulted  in  the  founding  of  Westminster  College, 
at  Salt  Lake  City.  In  common  with  his  brethi-en,  who 
were  labouring  amid  many  discouragements  in  that  por- 
tion of  the  mission  field,  where  he  himself  had  toiled  at 
the  foundations  for  so  many  years,  Sheldon  Jackson  was 
impressed  with  the  urgent  necessity  for  a  Christian  col- 
lege to  crown  the  work  of  the  four  Presbyterian  acad- 
emies, and  twenty  or  more  mission  schools  already  estab- 

415 


416  SHELDON  JACKSON 

lished  in  Utah.  For  the  purpose  of  giving  a  start  to 
this  enterprise,  he  oifered  to  deed  to  a  board  of  trustees 
who  should  be  chosen  by  the  presbytery,  under  certain 
conditions,  some  valuable  real  estate  located  in  Wash- 
ington City.  This  offer  was  accepted  with  hearty  thanks, 
and  the  following  spring  the  property  was  transferred  to 
a  board  of  trustees  so  appointed.  With  characteristic 
energy,  Jackson  went  to  work  as  he  had  opportunity,  to 
add  to  this  gift  by  public  and  private  appeals,  so  that 
the  work  of  organization  might  be  commenced  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.  For  some  years  following,  he 
provided  funds  for  the  suijport  of  a  president,  and  also 
succeeded  in  securing  for  the  institution,  or  in  diverting 
to  its  use, — many  thousands  of  dollars. 

In  recognition  of  this  generous  and  timely  aid,  apart 
from  which  this  important  work  would  doubtless  have 
been  long  delayed.  Dr.  Jackson  was  acknowledged  by  the 
official  action  of  the  trustees  as  the  founder  of  the  col- 
lege, and  is  so  designated  in  its  official  records. 

Without  waiting  for  costly  buildiugs  and  elaborate 
equipments,  the  friends  of  this  enterprise  in  Utah  secured 
a  charter,  in  which  provision  was  made  for  a  liberal  and 
extensive  range  of  studies,  and  began  the  work  of  organ- 
ization and  instruction  in  a  modest  way,  with  such  mate- 
rials and  equipments  as  they  could  command  at  the  time. 

The  able  and  devoted  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Salt  Lake  City,  Dr.  E.  G.  McNiece,  who  had 
laboured  and  prayed  through  many  years  for  the  inaugu- 
ration of  this  crowning  work  of  our  educational  system 
in  Utah,  gave  up  his  pastorate  in  order  that  he  might 
devote  all  his  energies  to  its  interests,  and  the  Hon.  John 
Eaton,  formerly  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, who  was  also  deeply  impressed  with  its  immediate 
importance,  consented  to  serve  for  a  time  as  its  first 
president. 


•*'i>l»,titi>liBi)l#j||yijliitrii|j|^|iil|)l<jii|||>|t|^^  H  w  IW  *iiimi|i<i<M>|^<lll 


-*  -  ||"^7^' 


W^IIP!»|fiH|W!! 


Westminster  College,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah. 
I.  Woman's  Building.  2.  Converse  Hall  (Administration  Building). 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  41Y 

Through  many  difficulties  aud  grievous  disappoint- 
ments the  friends  aud  sujiporters  of  Westminster  College 
worked  on  in  faith  and  hope  towards  the  day  of  better 
things  which  is  now  dawning.  A  few  years  ago,  its 
existence  aud  permanent  location  were  assured  by  the 
gift  of  a  new  and  attractive  site  of  twenty-one  acres  in 
the  southeastern  part  of  the  city.  This  generous  offering 
was  made  by  Col.  Wm.  M.  Ferry,  of  Park  City,  Utah. 
Upon  this  beautiful  site  the  main  building  of  the  college, 
a  handsome  structure  admirably  adapted  for  its  purpose, 
has  been  already  erected.  The  funds  required  for  the 
erection  of  a  beautiful  residence  hall  for  young  women 
have  been  recently  secured  and  the  building  is  now  in 
process  of  erection.  A  similar  building  for  young  men, 
to  cost  a  like  amount — $25,000 — has  also  been  promised. 

With  the  consent  of  the  Woman's  Board  the  Salt  Lake 
Collegiate  Institute,  on  the  fulfillment  of  certain  condi- 
tions, is  to  be  permanently  attached  to  the  college  as  a 
preparatory  department,  and  the  presbyter j'^  has  provided 
a  course  of  study,  graded  from  the  mission  schools  up 
through  its  four  academic  schools  and  the  college.  Thus 
all  the  departments  of  educational  work  under  the  care 
of  the  Church  have  been  brought  into  harmony. 

The  special  feature  of  the  tour  of  181)5,  of  which  the 
founding  of  Westminster  College  was  but  an  incident, 
was  the  location  of  the  site  for  a  central  village  and 
mission  school  for  the  Cape  Fox  aud  Port  Tongas 
Thlingets.  For  eighteen  years,  the  natives  of  this  por- 
tion of  the  country  had  been  pleading  for  a  school ;  but 
as  they  were  much  scattered  it  was  made  a  condition  of 
secm-ing  this  privilege  that  they  should  come  together  in 
one  settlement.  In  the  winter  of  1886-87,  Professor  Sax- 
man,  with  two  natives,  one  of  whom  was  the  young  evan- 
gelist, Louis  Paul,  were  drowned  while  searching  for  a 
suitable  location  for  this  settlement,  and  for  the  time,  the 


418  SHELDON  JACKSON 

enterprise  was  abandoned.  Negotiations  were  reopened 
with  a  view  to  the  consummation  of  this  project  after  the 
arrival  of  Dr.  Jackson,  and  a  council  of  the  tribe  held  on 
the  5th  of  July  resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  location  for 
the  proposed  village  at  the  lower  end  of  Tongas  Narrows. 
The  place  was  visited  soon  afterwards,  carefully  looked 
over  and  the  erection  of  a  building  large  enough  to  in- 
clude a  schoolroom  and  a  residence  for  a  teacher  was 
commenced  and  almost  completed  during  the  following 
month.  The  new  settlement,  whose  location  was  thus 
assured,  was  named  Saxman,  in  honour  of  the  govern- 
ment teacher  who  lost  his  life  in  the  attempt  to  bring 
about  this  long  desired  consummation.  The  establish- 
ment of  a  government  school  was  the  first  step  in  the 
direction  of  permanent  occupation  of  the  village,  but 
little  in  the  way  of  real  union,  substantial  progress,  or 
the  spiritual  enlightenment  of  its  inhabitants  was  accom- 
plished until  the  summer  of  1898,  when  the  Eev.  Edward 
Marsden,  a  full-blooded  native  minister,  who  had  received 
his  early  training  at  Metlahkatlah  and  the  industrial 
school  at  Sitka,  was  commissioned  by  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  for  this  field.  He  was  then  but  twenty-four 
years  of  age  and  yet  had  been  graduated  with  honour  at 
Marietta  College  and  Lane  Theological  Seminary.  Mean- 
while, as  he  had  opportunity,  he  had  studied  law  and 
medicine.  His  varied  attainments  are  thus  described  by 
Mrs.  Alice  Palmer  Henderson,  who  cites  him  as  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  the  work  which  Sheldon  Jackson 
and  his  associates  have  done  and  are  doing  for 
Alaska  : — 

"  He  is  an  intellectual  giant,  yet,  like  Nehemiah  of  old, 
'works  with  both  hands  earnestly.'  He  has  thoroughly 
mastered  several  trades,  is  a  carpenter,  shoemaker, 
cooper,  and  musician.  He  comjjoses,  and  adapts  scores 
from  piano  to  cornet.     He  played  at  the  World's  Co- 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  419 

lumbian  Exposition.  Like  a  Japanese  he  watches  and 
tries  everything." 

It  was  the  aim  of  this  young  pastor  from  the  first  to 
build  up  a  settlement  which  should  embody  all  the  ameni- 
ties and  advantages  of  a  practical  Christianity,  and  his 
work,  which  he  still  carries  on,  albeit  amid  many 'dis- 
couragements, has  effected  a  wonderful  transformation  in 
life  and  character  as  well  as  in  the  comforts  and  j)hysical 
well-being  of  the  community  which  he  influences  and  over 
which  he  practically  holds  rule. 

In  the  Home  Mission  Frayer  Calendar  he  is  ajDtly 
described  as  '■ '  the  preacher,  teacher,  lawyer,  doctor, 
nurse  and  business  adviser  of  his  people."  He  began  his 
work  by  clearing  several  acres  of  ground,  the  building  of 
houses  of  a  modern  type,  the  construction  of  a  new  steam- 
boat wharf  and  the  organization  of  a  town  government. 
Following  these  in  due  course  were  the  erection  of  a  saw- 
mill, the  establishing  industrial  works  of  various  kinds, 
the  organization  of  a  church,  the  erection  of  a  house  of 
worship  and  the  building  of  a  steam  launch,  "  for  mis- 
sionary relief  expeditions,  itinerary  work  and  business." 
In  his  report  for  1901  he  says  : — 

Although  the  work  has  its  discouragements  and  dark  side,  we 
will  pass  these  by  for  we  are  so  glad  to  report  that  the  light  of 
God  has  really  entered  the  hearts  of  these  people.  They  are 
awakened  and  the  word  of  God  is  searched  earnestly  and  care- 
fully studied.  Every  night  we  have  prayer-meetings  in  the 
homes  of  the  people.  We  have  also  singing  classes.  One  Sun- 
day a  whole  family,  father,  mother,  and  six  children,  came 
forward  to  be  baptized.     All  our  services  are  well  attended. 

To  those  who  do  not  look  beyond  the  temporal  results 
of  mission  work,  this  is  success.  It  cannot  be  limited  to 
this,  however,  for  its  reach  goes  far  beyond.  Surely  the 
outcome    of   that  summer's  work,   and  the  wonderful 


420  SHELDON  JACKSON 

trausformation  wrought  by  a  Christian  education  upon 
the  young  native  who  followed  it  up,  ought  to  be  a  suffi- 
cient justification  of  the  motives  and  patient  labours  of 
the  noble  men  and  women,  who,  in  the  face  of  ojiposi- 
tion  and  prejudice,  have  sought  to  bring  the  light  to 
those  who  were  sitting  within  the  region  and  shadow  of 
death. 

In  the  spring  of  1896,  Dr.  Jackson  was  selected  to  rep- 
resent the  work  of  the  missionary  force  of  the  country 
at  the  front  in  a  great  "  Home  Mission  Eally  "  which  was 
held  in  the  Carnegie  Music  Hall,  on  the  3d  of  March, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  York.  The 
meeting  was  called  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  a  crush- 
ing debt, — the  accumulation  of  several  years  of  financial 
depression, — which  at  that  time  amounted  to  the  sum  of 
$234,000.  It  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  assemblies 
of  its  kind  in  the  history  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Every  portion  of  the  great  hall  from  floor  to  the  topmost 
height  of  its  four  galleries  was  filled  to  overflowing.  The 
platform  was  occupied  by  ministers  of  the  presbytery, 
members  of  the  Mission  Boards,  visiting  ministers  and 
distinguished  guests  and  it  is  estimated  that  fully  4,000 
persons  awaited  the  signal  for  the  opening  of  the  service. 
The  President  of  the  United  States,  Grover  Cleveland, 
who  had  accepted  the  invitation  to  preside  over  this  vast 
assemblage.  Dr.  Jackson,  Dr.  Talmage,  Dr.  Thompson, 
secretary  of  the  Home  Board  and  one  representative  out- 
side the  Presbyterian  fold,  Booker  T.  "Washington,  were 
the  speakers  of  the  evening. 

The  address  of  Dr.  Jackson,  which  followed  the  earnest 
and  deeply  sympathetic  words  of  President  Cleveland, 
was  an  able  presentation  of  the  needs,  the  possibilities, 
the  vast  extent,  and  the  marvellous  transformations  al- 
ready wrought  in  that  portion  of  the  land  which  was  or 
now  is  known   as  home  mission  territory.     In  contrast 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  421 

with  the  wondrous  progress  which  had  been  made,  a 
series  of  successes  uot  excelled  even  by  the  apostolic 
church,  he  described  the  reaction  which  had  come  over 
the  Church,  the  sinking  of  hearts  on  the  mission  fields, 
because  of  the  halt  that  had  been  called  in  the  midst  of 
unprecedented  success  in  spiritual  advances,  and  the  sad 
results  which  attended  the  closing  of  mission  schools  and 
the  sending  back  to  heathenism  and  vice  the  children  who 
were  being  trained  in  the  principles  of  righteousness 
and  purity  in  heart  and  life. 

This  meeting  did  not  accomplish  the  object  to  any  great 
extent  which  its  promoters  had  in  view,  but  it  did  give 
the  cause  which  all  the  speakers,  who  so  ably  presented 
it,  desired,  a  prominence  and  an  uplift  which  in  the  end 
were  productive  of  good  results. 

During  the  summer  of  1896,  the  usual  tour  of  inspec- 
tion to  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  was  made,  by 
way  of  Sitka  and  Unalaska.  This  trip,  which  included 
a  sum  total  of  18,465  miles,  occupied  a  little  more  than 
five  months.  At  the  entrance  to  Port  Clarence,  which 
was  reached  in  July,  heavy  ice-floes,  the  original  ice  of 
the  previous  winter,  extended  eight  miles  out  to  sea  and 
obstructed  the  passage  of  the  vessel.  The  station  at  this 
point,  off  which  the  captain  expected  to  anchor  in  a  few 
hours,  was  not  reached  until  nineteen  days  thereafter, 
most  of  which  were  spent  in  beating  about  amid  fogs  and 
ice-drifts  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  way  of  entrance.  For 
the  first  time  in  fifty  years  at  this  season  of  the  year  the 
whalers  were  unable  to  get  into  the  harbour  of  Port 
Clarence  and  were  obliged  to  take  refuge  on  the  lee  side  of 
King's  Island. 

At  Cape  Blossom  in  Kotzebue  Sound  Mr.  David  John- 
sou  and  his  native  assistant  of  the  Swedish  Evangelical 
Union  Missionary  Society  were  landed  in  a  heavy  surf  on 
a  desolate  coast,  to  begin  a  new  mission  among  the  people 


422  SHELDON  JACKSON 

of  that  section,  * '  Mr.  Jolinson  was  left  among  these  wild 
people,"  says  Dr.  Jackson,  "without  a  house  to  shelter 
him,  without  anything  wherewith  to  build  a  house,  with 
no  protection  of  courts,  policemen  or  government  within 
3, 000  miles,  with  nothing  but  a  few  pounds  of  provisions 
for  the  winter,  throwing  himself  upon  the  barbarous  peo- 
ple among  whom  he  expected  to  work.  His  strong,  heroic 
faith  made  an  impression  upon  the  officers  and  crew  of 
the  ship." 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  August,  the  Bear,  after 
threading  its  way  through  ice-floes  of  enormous  size, 
reached  a  position  opposite  the  whaling  station  at  Point 
Barrow,  but  an  impenetrable  barrier  of  ice,  the  piling  of 
berg  upon  berg,  closed  the  way  of  aj^proach  to  the  place 
of  landing.  After  five  days,  measured  by  the  watch, — 
for  the  sun  was  shining  at  the  hour  of  retiring  as  well  as 
at  the  hour  of  rising — the  ship  reached  a  position  from 
which  the  supplies  for  the  station  could  be  landed,  and 
was  moored  to  a  grounded  iceberg  six  miles  long  and 
about  half  a  mile  wide.  This  giant  mass  of  polar  ice  had 
drifted  in  from  the  sea  eleven  mouths  before.  Among 
the  items  of  supplies  lauded  at  the  time  for  the  lone  mis- 
sionary at  this  station,  mention  is  made  of  fifteen  tons  of 
coal,  150  gallons  of  coal-oil,  four  boxes  of  navy  crackers 
and  sixteen  sacks  of  flour. 

From  TJnalaska  to  Sitka,  the  return  voyage  was  made 
on  the  United  States  revenue  cutter  Wolcott.  A  storm  of 
exceptional  violence,  lasting  for  about  a  week,  made  this 
portion  of  the  voyage  very  uncomfortable  for  all  on  board, 
and  at  times  it  was  doubtful  whether  the  vessel  would  be 
staunch  enough  to  weather  the  gale.  The  modern  ex- 
pedient of  "oiling  the  waves"  brought  temporary  relief 
from  the  surge  of  the  billows  which  threatened  to  engulf 
it  and  a  partial  immunity,  at  least,  from  serious  danger. 
Out  of  eight  trips  made  across  this  broad  expanse  of  the 


Sheldon  Jackson's  fur  suit  for  summer  use  in  Alaska. 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  423 

Iforth  Pacific,  between  Sitka  and  Unalaska,  Sheldon  Jack- 
son reckons  only  one  duiiug  wliicli  lie  was  free  from  sea- 
sickness. 

In  the  year  1897,  a  new  direction  was  given  to  his  trav- 
els by  the  discovery  of  rich  deposits  of  gold  at  Dawson 
Ci<y  and  other  points  up  the  valley  of  the  Klondike. 
Tnese  discoveries  had  already  attracted  attention  to  the 
Yukon  River,  which  offered  the  easiest  and  safest  route  to 
the  Klondike  regions,  and  settlements  were  already  spring- 
ing up  at  many  points  along  the  line  of  this  route.  To 
reach  these  new  settlements  and  make  provision  for  the 
supply  of  their  needs,  this  general  agent  of  Church  and 
state  with  his  accustomed  foresight  and  alertness  planned 
a  tour  of  exploration  up  this  mighty  river  from  St.  Mi- 
chaels to  Dawson,  in  connection  with  his  annual  tour  of 
visitation  to  Western  Alaska  and  the  coasts  of  Bering 
Sea. 

At  the  request  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  he  also 
undertook  the  additional  labour  of  investigating  the  agri- 
cultural capabilities  of  the  Yukon  Valley,  in  connection 
with  this  proposed  journey.  At  its  close  he  presented  an 
official  report  of  his  investigations  to  the  chief  of  that  de- 
partment. 

On  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  this  far  country,  of 
which  as  yet  so  little  was  known.  Dr.  Jackson  was  nomi- 
nated as  a  candidate  for  Moderator  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, which  met  at  Winona  Lake,  on  the  20th  of  May. 
This  nomination  was  warmly  supported  in  addresses  of 
rare  eloquence,  and  when  the  hour  of  decision  came  he 
was  elected  to  this  office,  the  highest  in  honour  and  in- 
fluence within  the  gift  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States,  by  an  exceptionally  large  majority.  This 
distinguished  honour  and  the  interesting  incidents  and 
events  associated  with  it  merit  something  more  than  a 
passing  notice,  for  in  the  person  of  this  representative 


424  SHELDON  JACKSON 

of  the  dauntless  workers  on  the  frontier  the  cause  of  home 
missions  was  honoured  and  exploited  as  never  before  in 
the  history  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

Before  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  there  had  been  a 
friendly  discussion  in  the  leading  denominational  papers 
with  respect  to  the  merits  and  special  fitness  of  six  emi- 
nent men  whose  names  had  been  proposed  by  zealous 
friends  and  advocates  for  the  office  of  moderator.  The 
honoured  names  mentioned  in  this  connection  were  Dr. 
Eobert  F.  Sample  of  New  York,  Dr.  Wilbur  Chapman 
of  Philadelphia,  Dr.  Henry  Minton  of  San  Francisco,  Dr. 
Sheldon  Jackson  of  Alaska,  and  Euling  Elders  John 
Wanamaker  and  Ex-President  Harrison.  As  the  time 
drew  near  for  the  decision,  the  contest  was  narrowed  by 
the  withdrawal  of  all  the  names  on  this  honour  list  except 
those  of  Dr.  Henry  Minton  and  Dr.  Jackson.  Five  days 
before  the  election  the  Pittsburg  Dispatch  made  the  fol- 
lowing forecast,  which  proved  to  be  a  very  accurate  rep- 
resentation of  the  actual  situation  : — 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Minton  will  be  urged  on  the  ground 
that  the  office  should  go  to  the  Pacific  coast.  His  personal  fol- 
lowing is  large,  and  the  Washington  and  Jefferson  men  will 
support  him  solidly,  unless  Dr.  Sample  of  New  York  should  be 
named  and  divide  the  vote.  Dr.  Minton  is  well  backed  up  by 
the  Pacific  coast,  the  Pennsylvania  and  the  Kentucky  delega- 
tions, and  his  prospects  are  roseate.  Rev.  Dr.  Sheldon  Jack- 
son, whose  name  is  talismanic,  and  whose  career  of  forty  years 
in  the  home  mission  work,  mostly  in  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
reads  like  a  romance,  will  be  placed  in  nomination  by  one  of 
the  leading  orators  of  the  Church,  "the  Plumed  Knight,"  in  a 
speech  which  the  friends  of  Dr.  Jackson  hope  will  carry  the 
assembly  off  its  feet,  and  place  Dr.  Jackson  in  the  moderator's 
chair  with  a  whirl.  In  the  life  and  work  of  this  distinguished 
missionary  there  is  basis  for  a  fervid  speech. 

In  all  the  forecasts  of  this  friendly  but  spirited  contest, 
it  was  conceded  that  Dr.  Minton  was  a  very  formidable 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  425 

opponent.  His  eminent  ability  was  recognized  by  all,  and 
bis  winsome  personality  had  attracted  and  retained  a  host 
of  enthusiastic  friends  in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West. 
Dr.  Gray  of  Tlie  Interior  was  one  of  the  first  to  propose 
and  advocate  the  nomination  of  ' '  the  little  missionary 
delegate  from  Alaska."  In  one  of  his  confidential  moods 
this  sprightly  journalist  left  on  record  some  interesting 
facts  relating  to  a  "camp-fire"  which  was  held  by  the 
Jackson  men,  on  the  arrival  of  the  delegates,  to  consider 
the  situation : — 

Arriving  on  the  grounds,  Dr.  Spining  soon  appeared.  The 
situation  apparently  was  that  the  whole  earth,  including  the  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  in  high  places,  were  for  Dr.  Minton.  We 
were  told  that  Pennsylvania  was  solid  for  him.  New  York  City 
certainly  was.  All  of  New  Jersey  wanted  Minton.  The  Pacific 
slope  was  for  him  as  one  man.  General  Harrison  was  for  him, 
and  as  he  was  on  the  H's  and  would  vote  early  in  the  roll  call, 
his  influence  would  be  felt,  though  he  desired  only  to  vote  his  pref- 
erence, and  influence  nobody.  On  Wednesday  the  candidacy  of 
the  popular  Dr.  Chapman  was  promoted  and  the  word  went  to  all 
of  Jackson's  leading  friends  that  the  people  had  left  our  David 
and  were  following  after — but  I  must  not  follow  the  illustration. 
It  only  works  part  of  the  way — I  will  only  say  that  Chapman  is 
good-looking  and  the  rank  and  file  of  Israel  like  him  very 
much — and  we  all  liked  him  too.  These  discouraging  words 
were  carried  to  Dr.  Spining,  who  replied  :  "Shut  up  !  Jack- 
son will  be  the  moderator."  The  combination  for  Dr.  Minton 
did  look  irresistible,  and  it  was  more  formidable  than  we  sup- 
posed because  we  imagined  that  the  evangelist  Chapman  would 
be  more  favourable  to  the  missionary  than  to  the  theological 
professor. 

There  was  a  man  whom  I  had  heard  talking  on  the  train  as  I 
went  down,  but  had  not  obtained  his  name,  and  set  about 
searching  for  him.  About  half-past  ten  Wednesday  night 
General  Eaton  came  and  said  he  had  found  him — that  he  was 
the  Rev.  Richard  M.  Hayes,  D.  D.,  of  Oregon,  but  that  he  had 
gone  to  bed.  We  went  to  the  Woman's  Building  and  asked  to 
see  him.  He  sent  word  that  he  had  retired  and  would  see  us 
in  the  morning,   but  like  Peter  we    "continued   knocking." 


426  SHELDON  JACKSON 

He  came  down,  agreed  to  make  the  seconding  speech,  and  then 
said,  "  Brethren,  we  must  spend  part  of  this  night  in  prayer." 
That  was  assented  to  as  the  only  poUtics  available  in  such  an 
emergency.  If  we  could  get  God  for  Jackson,  we  would  not 
be  afraid  of  the  combination — and  it  appears  that  we  did.  I 
am  quite  sure  that  it  was  the  praying  which  resulted  in  the 
touching  of  the  lips  of  Spining  and  Hayes  with  such  divine 
fire. 

The  nomination  proper  seems  to  have  been  a  spon- 
taneous tribute  of  regard  from  the  ruling  elder  of  a  home 
mission  church  in  Wisconsin.  It  was  not  on  the  pro- 
gram, as  arranged  by  Dr.  Gray  and  his  friends,  but  was 
all  the  more  effective  and  impressive  on  that  account. 

After  the  nomination  of  Dr.  Minton  by  Dr.  J.  Wilbur 
Chapman  in  an  able  address, — himself  a  favourite  candi- 
date in  the  minds  of  many  delegates, — and  a  speech  sec- 
onding that  nomination  by  Dr.  Henry  Ward,  of  Buffalo, 
there  was  a  slight  pause,  broken,  however,  by  the  rising 
of  this  almost  unknown  representative,  Elder  H.  J.  Mor- 
rison, who  said : — 

Mr.  Moderator  : — I  nominate  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson.  I  have 
no  set  speech  to  make  in  his  behalf,  but  merely  wish  to  say  that 
I  first  met  him  in  1878  at  the  General  Assembly  in  Pittsburg, 
and  for  nearly  twenty  years  have  followed  him  in  his  work.  I 
wish  that  this  General  Assembly  may  be  known  as  the  "Mis- 
sionary Assembly,"  and  to  help  to  make  it  so,  I  want  the  great- 
est home  missionary  to  preside.  I  hope  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson 
will  be  elected  moderator. 

After  this  nominating  address,  one  of  the  shortest,  per- 
haps, on  record,  Dr.  Spining  was  recognized  and  came  to 
the  platform  to  make  his  plea  for  the  election  of  Sheldon 
Jackson.  Dr.  Gray,  who  secured  a  revised  copy  of  the 
address  and  published  it  a  short  time  afterwards,  "just 
as  it  was  delivered,"  introduced  it  with  the  following 
statement : — 

"The  address  was  imi)romptu,  and  grew  out  of  imme- 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  427 

diate  circumstances.  The  appropriateness  of  the  opening 
paragraph  will  only  be  perceived  when  it  is  explained 
that  a  pretty  strong  pressure  was  made  to  have  Dr.  Jack- 
son withdraw,  to  save  him  the  humiliation  of  a  light  sup- 
port. .  .  .  We  make  bold  to  express  the  conviction 
that  this  speech  of  Dr.  Spining  has  never  been  equalled 
as  an  example  of  impromx3tu  eloquence  in  any  modern  re- 
ligious assembly,  and  by  very  few  in  the  forum  of  the 
legislators."  • 

Dr.  Spining's  Address 

Moderator,  Fathers,  and  Brethren  : — Once  upon  a 
time  when  Mr.  Beecher  was  absent,  his  committee  on  pulpit 
supply  ventured  to  engage  a  certain  Congregational  "  rough 
diamond  "  from  the  backwoods  of  Missouri  to  fill  the  pulpit  of 
the  great  preacher  for  a  single  Sabbath.  A  moment  before 
service  they  took  him  aside,  reminded  him  that  he  was  soon  to 
find  himself  before  an  audience  which  represented  the  brains, 
wealth  and  culture  of  America,  and  kindly  exhorted  him  not 
to  be  afraid,  but  to  go  ahead  and  deliver  his  message.  Upon 
entering  the  pulpit  he  stepped  to  the  front,  shaded  his  eyes 
with  his  hand,  scanned  his  audience  critically,  and  began  as 
follows  :  "So  this  is  the  congregation  of  the  great  Mr. 
Beecher  !  Your  deacons  have  just  cautioned  me  not  to  be 
frightened,  but  to  go  ahead  and  preach  as  I  would  to  my  own 
people.  Now,  you  bald-headed  sinners  and  gray-haired  saints, 
I  want  you  to  understand  in  the  beginning  that  if  any  one  in 
this  house  is  scared  he  isn't  on  this  platform,  for  I  have  a  mes- 
sage from  my  Master  to  deliver  to  you,  and  I  intend  to  deliver 
it  in  the  fear  of  God." 

It  is  with  a  feeling  akin  to  this  that  I  venture  to  take  the 
platform  for  a  few  minutes  in  i)resence  of  this  vast  audience, 
to  present  the  claims  of  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson  for  the  highest 
honour  the  Cliurch  can  confer,  not  only  on  account  of  his 
splendid  and  incomparable  services  in  the  field  of  missionary 
activity,  but  because  he  is  the  incarnation  of  that  aggressive 
and  consecrated  missionary  spirit  to  which  I  believe  the  Master 
would  give  expression  in  all  the  deliberations  of  this  assembly. 
Too  long  have  we  been  standing  with  the  angel  of  the  backward 
look — too  long  flailing  the  earth  and  blinding  our  eyes  with  the 


428  SHELDON  JACKSON 

dust  of  a  dying  controversy.  In  the  meantime,  our  missionary 
forces  at  home  and  abroad  have  had  their  suppUes  cut  off;  our 
Church  Boards  have  all  been  wounded  and  crippled ;  appro- 
priations in  every  direction  have  been  cut  down ;  the  humiliat- 
ing order  of  halt  and  even  retreat  has  passed  to  the  frontier ; 
outposts  for  which  we  have  fought,  and  upon  which  we  have 
expended  the  toil  and  treasure  of  years  in  heroic  effort,  have 
been  surrendered ;  unhappy  dissensions  too  long  prolonged 
have  wrought  distrust  and  weakened  fraternal  bonds;  hard 
times  have  tightened  our  grip  on  our  purse-strings  and  weak- 
ened our  faith  in  God  ;  spiritual  stupor  has  come  upon  us  and 
the  Delilah  of  self-indulgence  has  sought  to  bind  us  hand  and 
foot  with  cords  of  avarice,  indifference  and  worldliness,  so  that 
the  condition  of  the  great  Presbyterian  Church  to-day  is  like 
that  of  a  slumbering  giant  awaiting  the  cry,  "Samson,  Sam- 
son, awake  !     The  Philistines  are  upon  thee  !  " 

If  I  know  anything  of  the  Church  at  large,  the  Church  we 
represent — the  prayer  of  those  who  get  nearest  to  God — it  is 
that  we  should  turn  our  faces  from  the  past  towards  the  future, 
and  from  controversy  to  conquest.  In  this  connection  I  ven- 
ture to  say  that  no  man  in  this  assembly  has  done  more  to  win 
this  land  for  Christ  than  Sheldon  Jackson — little  Sheldon  Jack- 
son. True,  he  is  diminutive  in  stature,  but  I  think  it  is  evident 
that  Providence  cut  him  off  short  that  he  might  fit  the  Indian 
ponies  which  were  to  carry  him  over  thousands  of  miles  of 
mountain  trails,  that  he  might  be  able  to  sleep  in  barrels,  buck- 
boards,  stage-boots,  kyacks  and  hollow  logs,  in  his  "journey- 
ings  often  "  over  the  great  mountains,  plains  and  waters  of  the 
West ;  that  he  might  accommodate  himself  to  the  narrow 
quarters  of  the  cabin  of  the  miner,  the  mud  hut  of  the  Mexican, 
the  hovel  of  the  Alaskan,  the  tepee  of  the  Indian,  and  the  scant 
accommodations  of  the  prison  cell — all  of  which  he  has  done 
in  planting  the  standard  of  the  cross  over  that  western  country. 

"  'Neath  the  mantel  of  a  century, 
Lo,  a  mighty  empire  lies, 
On  whose  brow  millennial  glory 
Of  the  Church  of  God  shall  rise." 


Naturally,  he  should  be  our  standard-bearer.  Is  the  loyalty 
of  this  man  called  in  question  ?  Let  us  test  it  not  by  the 
sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbals  of  party  shibboleths  and 


STRENUOUS  LABOUKS  429 

factious  strife,  but  by  the  apostolic  tests  of  hardness  endured, 
of  life  imperilled,  of  fidelity  in  the  face  of  imprisonment  and 
death,  of  unwearied  activity  and  of  splendid  achievement. 

The  great  state  of  New  York  claims  the  honour  of  his  na- 
tivity ;  Union  College  gave  him  his  classical  equipment,  while 
Princeton  moulded  his  theology,  and  now  points  with  pride  to 
his  heroic  career  as  an  example  of  her  missionary  spirit. 

Forty  years  ago,  when  many  of  us  were  in  our  cradles,  he 
crossed  the  frontier  of  the  Mississippi  as  a  trusted  standard- 
bearer  of  the  cross,  and  from  that  time  to  this  he  has  been 
charged  with  the  responsibility  of  laying  the  foundations  of  a 
colossal  church  in  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Mon- 
tana, Wyoming,  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  and 
far-off  Alaska.  He  has  been  one  of  that  noble  band  of  pio- 
neers who  carved  presbyteries  out  of  the  wilderness  and  erected 
synods  before  the  foundations  of  civil  government  were  laid. 
Penetrating  thousands  of  miles  into  the  barbaric  night  of  that 
great  empire  which  lay  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific, 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  remotest  habitation  of  man  within 
the  Arctic  zone — carrying  the  Bible  in  one  hand  and  our  Con- 
fession in  the  other — he  has  gathered  hundreds  of  congregations 
and  founded  a  hundred  churches  on  the  Word  of  God  and 
"according  to  the  pattern  shown  us  in  the  mount."  Deeds 
speak  louder  than  words,  and  these  churches  which  lighten  up 
the  wilderness  and  make  glad  the  solitary  place  are  to-day  roll- 
ing up  the  long-meter  doxology  from  the  plains  of  Minnesota, 
the  rock-ribbed  mountains  of  Colorado,  and  the  ice-bound 
shores  of  Alaska,  praising  God  for  the  loyalty  of  this  "  one 
man  "  to  the  "  Old  Book  "  and  to  our  Confession. 

Has  he  executive  ability  and  experience  in  handling  difficult 
questions?  The  Church  has  already  answered  this  question, 
and  the  United  States  government  lias  shown  its  high  estimate 
of  his  ability  by  entrusting  him  with  the  formation  and  super- 
intendence of  its  whole  educational  system  in  Alaska.  If  it 
may  be  objected  that  this  is  a  secular  position,  I  answer  that  he 
is  still  a  missionary  of  our  Board,  and  I  would  God  that  more 
of  our  educational  system  throughout  the  land  were  taken  from 
the  hands  of  unbelief  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  Christian  men. 
It  detracts  nothing  from  the  glory  of  the  Cliurch  that  many  of 
her  faithful  servants  have  been  honoured  by  the  state  with 
positions  of  great  responsibility.  If  it  does,  then  let  us  strike 
off  the  first  and  most  illustrious  of  all  the  names  in  the  roll  of 


430  SHELDON  JACKSON 

our  moderators — the  name  of  the  Rev.  John  Witherspoon, 
President  of  Princeton  College,  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  signer  of  our  immortal  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. In  Sheldon  Jackson  we  have  not  only  the  untiring 
missionary  who  has  travelled  600,000  miles — a  distance  equal 
to  twenty-four  circuits  of  the  globe  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
work  ;  not  only  the  educator  who  has  founded  a  great  institu- 
tion of  learning  in  Utah  and  endowed  it  with  his  patrimony, 
but  we  see  in  him  the  elements  of  the  broad-minded  statesman 
and  great-hearted  philanthropist,  one  of  whom  the  future  his- 
torian will  write:  "In  a  time  of  famine  and  distress,  when 
their  food  supply  was  gone,  he  crossed  the  ice  regions  of  the 
North,  penetrated  into  the  fastnesses  of  Siberia  and  saved  the 
native  races  of  Alaska  by  introducing  large  herds  of  reindeer 
for  their  subsistence  and  support."  Sir,  this  deed  alone  en- 
titles him  to  the  admiration  of  mankind,  and  will  yet  place  his 
name  in  the  Pantheon  of  philanthropy  with  all  the  honours  of 
an  uncrowned  king. 

Mr.  Moderator,  it  is  high  time  that  the  Church  should  show 
her  appreciation  of  the  splendid  services  of  her  home  mission- 
aries, by  placing  the  highest  honour  within  her  gift  upon  the 
head  of  one  of  her  battle-scarred  veterans.  How  often  within 
recent  years  has  this  honour  gone  to  the  seminaries ;  how  sel- 
dom, proportionately,  has  it  fallen  to  the  great  body  of  pastors, 
and  in  not  one  single  instance  has  it  ever  gone  to  a  home  mis- 
sionary. If  it  is  a  legitimate  object  of  ministerial  ambition,  are 
we  to  understand  that  service  counts  for  nothing  and  there  is 
no  direct  path  to  it  from  the  home  mission  field. 

Sir,  it  is  recorded  in  Holy  Writ  that  King  Ahasuerus,  in  a 
wakeful  hour,  in  reading  the  chronicles  of  his  kingdom,  stumbled 
across  the  record  of  the  unrequited  services  of  Mordecai,  and 
touched  with  a  feeling  of  gratitude  cried  out :  "What  honour 
or  dignity  hath  been  put  upon  this  Mordecai  ?  "  The  cham- 
berlains answered,  "  None,"  "  AVhat  shall  be  done  to  the  man 
whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honour?"  was  the  next  question. 
We  all  know  the  answer,  and  that  Mordecai  was  made  prime 
minister  of  his  kingdom.  In  1879,  the  Church  was  looking 
over  its  work  in  the  foreign  field,  and  came  across  the  grand 
record  of  Dr.  H.  H.  Jessup,  who  had  been  in  the  forefront  of 
the  battle  on  foreign  fields  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
The  same  old  questions  raised  by  Ahasuerus  came  up,  and  Dr. 
Jessup  was  made  prime  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  for 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  431 

that  year.     The  result  was  a  great  quickening  of  interest  in 
foreign  missions. 

The  Church  is  now  on  its  knees  praying  for  peace  and  fra- 
ternal love — for  a  great  quickening,  a  spiritual  uplift  which 
shall  bring  us  face  to  face  again  with  a  perishing  world  and 
with  the  work  we  have  to  do  for  its  redemption.  One  of  the 
means  to  this  end  will  be  the  election  of  a  missionary  leader  of 
this  assembly. 

Brethren,  I  had  a  dream  to-day,  which  was  not  all  a  dream. 
In  my  vision  I  saw  a  corridor  reaching  from  this  platform  back 
and  upward  to  the  first  century.  Out  of  a  door  in  that  century 
came  a  man  of  small  stature;  bronzed,  scarred,  and  weather- 
beaten  ;  a  dim  halo  of  glory  was  about  him,  and  while  he  wore 
the  panoply  of  a  soldier  of  the  cross — he  carried  above  him  a 
tattered  flag — like  those  of  veteran  soldiers  returning  from  war. 
Upon  it  1  read  the  names  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Philippi  and 
Rome,  and  as  he  reached  this  platform,  I  said  to  myself,  Surely 
I  cannot  be  mistaken,  this  is  none  other  than  the  Apostle  Paul, 
the  great  missionary  to  the  Gentiles.  I  ventured  to  inform 
him  as  to  the  character  of  our  assembly,  and  to  assure  him  that 
the  system  of  theology  in  which  we  believed  was  that  which  he 
had  outlined  as  being  in  conformity  with  the  Word  of  God. 
He  seemed  deeply  interested,  and  after  speaking  to  him  of  the 
growth  of  our  Church  and  of  our  missionary  work  I  offered  to 
introduce  him  to  some  of  the  distinguished  members  of  this 
assembly.  "Here,  for  instance,"  said  I,  "is  Benjamin  Har- 
rison." "Yes,"  he  replied,  "a  worthy  successor  of  Wash- 
ington— a  Christian  statesman,  and  an  elder  beloved.  I  would 
like  to  meet  him,  but  not  now,  I  will  see  him  later."  I  said, 
"Here  is  also  General  Wanamaker."  "Yes,"  he  answered, 
"I  know  his  record  from  that  of  a  poor  boy,  to  wealth  and 
high  public  position.  I  know  his  evangelical  spirit,  his  liber- 
ality, his  personal  work — and  that  he  hath  built  us  a  grand 
synagogue  where  Christ  only  is  preached.  I  long  to  meet  him 
— but  wait  awhile,  I  will  see  him  later."  I  said,  "Here  also 
is  James  A.  Mount."  "Yes,"  he  answered,  "  he  is  governor 
of  the  great  state  of  Indiana.  An  elder  in  a  little  country 
church — has  ordered  his  household  in  the  fear  of  God,  has  a 
daughter  in  the  foreign  field  and  a  son  a  home  missionary.  I 
long  to  meet  him — but  not  now,  I  will  see  him  later." 

"Here,"  said  I,  "is  our  moderator.  Dr.  Withrow,  who  has 
just  swept  the  Gospel  harp  with  a  master  hand  and  filled  our 


432  SHELDON  JACKSON 

souls  with  the  music  of  divine  charity."  "Yes,"  he  replied, 
"  he  is  a  man  after  mine  own  heart — a  beloved  disciple — I 
must  see  him,  but  not  now,  I  will  see  him  later."  I  then  re- 
marked that  we  had  some  notable  Christian  women  here. 
Mrs.  James,  Mrs.  Pierson,  and  many  others.  "Yes,"  he 
answered,  "they  are  all  beloved  helpers  in  the  Lord — I  must 
meet  them  also,  but  not  now,  I  will  see  them  later."  "Who 
then,"  said  I,  "do  you  first  wish  to  see?"  He  looked  care- 
fully over  the  assembly  and  then  answered:  "Is  there  not  a 
little  bronzed  missionary  from  Alaska  here — a  man  about  my 
size — a  man  of  weak  eyes  and  insignificant  bodily  presence — a 
man  in  whom  the  apostolic  zeal  of  ancient  times  has  found 
expression  in  the  New  World,  and  who  has  had  the  care  of  all 
the  churches  in  the  regions  beyond?" 

"Ah,"  I  cried,  "  I  know  who  you  mean,"  and  not  waiting 
to  hear  another  word  I  sought,  found,  and  presented  Sheldon 
Jackson. 

"True  yoke-fellow  and  brother  beloved,"  said  Paul,  "we 
are  physically  small — God  made  us  short  that  we  might  accom- 
modate ourselves  to  circumstances  and  magnify  His  grace.  I 
rejoice  that  primitive  zeal  still  flames  in  the  Church,  and  that 
here  and  in  foreign  lands  are  thousands  of  standard-bearers  of 
the  cross  who  may  not  rest  until  the  nations  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness have  seen  a  great  light — and  the  world  is  filled  with  the 
knowledge  of  God  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea ;  '  be  thou  faith- 
ful unto  death  and  let  no  man  take  thy  crown.'  " 

Moderator  and  brethren,  here  my  vision  ends,  and  I  believe 
in  my  soul  that  if  this  assembly  elects  this  missionary  leader  as 
its  standard-bearer,  that  act  will  be  as  a  trumpet  call  to  mis- 
sionary endeavour,  and  our  whole  beloved  Church  will  mark 
time  in  a  forward  movement  towards  the  conquest  of  this  and 
all  other  lands  for  Christ. 

It  is  related  that  when  an  iron  brigade  on  a  field  of  battle 
wavered  and  turned  to  retreat,  there  appeared  before  them  an 
old  revolutionary  soldier  with  cocked  hat,  knee-breeches  and 
flint-lock  musket.  The  fires  of  '76  flashed  in  his  eyes,  and 
with  a  front  of  iron  he  faced  the  enemy.  Then  it  was  that 
some  one  cried,  "The  spirits  of  the  heroes  of  Lexington, 
Trenton,  and  Bunker  Hill  are  with  us.  About  face — Double 
quick — Charge  !  "  and  that  brigade  swept  the  field  as  a  hail- 
storm beats  down  a  field  of  grain. 

Oh  !   that  the  inspiration  of  prophets,  apostles,  and  martyrs, 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  433 

of  heroic  soldiers  of  the  cross  in  all  ages  might  come  upon  us, 
that  a  vision  of  the  glorious  Master  Himself  pointing  to  the 
home  and  foreign  field  might  now  arrest  our  retreating  steps — 
turn  us  with  united  front  towards  the  enemy,  and  lead  us  on 
to  that  final  victory  in  which 

"  Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun 
Doth  his  successive  journeys  run ; 
His  kingdom  stretch  from  shore  to  shore. 
Till  moons  shall  wax  and  wane  no  more." 

The  address  of  Dr.  Hayes,  of  Oregon,  was  an  able  and 
eloquent  plea  in  favour  of  Dr.  Jackson  from  the  home 
mission  view-point.     In  his  concluding  words,  he  said  : — 

I  would  not  say  one  word  against  the  other  candidates,  I 
could  not  if  I  would.  But  among  the  very  many  able,  faithful 
ministers  of  our  beloved  Church,  there  is  one  whose  whole 
record  of  forty  years  of  service  stands  for  home  missions.  A 
man  whose  work  is  known  from  the  Mississippi  to  our  farthest 
northern  boundaries;  a  man  whose  name  is  a  household  word 
from  where  the  orange  blossoms  waft  their  fragrance  in  sunny 
Southland,  to  where  the  icy  crags  point  their  glittering  spires 
heavenward  in  far-off  Alaska;  and  from  where  the  heaving 
billows  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  dash  into  ten  thousand  sparkling 
rain-drops  on  New  England's  rock-bound  coast  to  where  the 
shining  sands  of  the  Golden  Gate  are  laved  by  the  waters  of 
the  mighty  Pacific. 

Before  the  taking  of  the  vote  Dr.  G.  W.  McMillan, 
President  of  Richmond  College,  Ohio,  took  the  platform 
and  spoke  with  much  Ifeeling  on  behalf  of  his  old  time 
friend  and  college  mate,  pleading  earnestly,  as  did  those 
who  preceded  him,  for  a  recognition  of  the  home  mission 
work  of  the  Church  in  that  assembly.  In  his  peroration 
Dr.  McMillan  said  :— 

Brethren,  I  verily  believe  that  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson  is  the 
greatest  missionary  the  world  has  ever  seen  since  the  Apostle 
Paul  went  far  hence  unto  the  Gentiles  and  died  upon   the 


434  SHELDON  JACKSON 

scaffold.  ...  If  ever  the  General  Assembly  is  to  recog- 
nize the  home  missionary  cause  and  to  honour  the  missionaries, 
it  is  now.  Their  necessities  are  greater  than  they  have  ever 
been,  and  I  pray  God  they  may  never  be  so  great  again.  They 
offer  you  their  greatest  missionary  and  they  can  never  offer  you 
a  greater. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  roll-call  by  synods,  the  an- 
nouncement was  made  that  Sheldon  Jackson  having  re- 
ceived three  hundred  and  thirteen  votes,  a  clear  majority 
of  seventy-five — was  duly  elected. 

When  he  was  brought  into  the  auditorium  by  the  com- 
mittee sent  to  notify  him  of  the  assembly's  action,  all  who 
were  present — a  congregation  of  about  2,000  persons — 
rose  en  masse  and  received  him  with  a  storm  of  applause. 

The  result  of  this  election,  while  somewhat  disappoint- 
ing to  the  friends  of  Dr.  Minton,  was  only  a  temporary 
waiver  of  their  just  claim  on  his  behalf,  and,  not  long 
afterwards  another  assembly  honoured  that  claim,  and 
gave  him  a  like  reception  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
The  Hon.  John  Wanamaker,  another  of  the  proposed 
candidates,  was  appointed  Vice-Moderator  of  the  "Winona 
Assembly  by  Moderator  Jackson  ;  while  a  third,  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Sample,  was  made  the  Moderator  of  the  111th  As- 
sembly, which  met  two  years  later  at  Minneapolis. 

From  every  quarter  of  the  land  congratulations  were 
sent  to  Dr.  Jackson  or  his  family  following  the  announce- 
ment of  his  election.  Many  were  from  men  on  the  fron- 
tier who  saw  in  this  action  of  the  assembly  the  promise 
of  a  better  day.  One  of  these  congratulatory  messages 
was  from  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Cleland,  one  of  the  trio  who 
knelt  with  him,  in  the  hill-top  service  of  prayer  at  Sioux 
City,  near  the  close  of  the  sixties  :  another  was  from  one 
of  the  three  courageous  men — the  Eev.  John  L.  Gage — 
who  together  held  the  ground  on  the  line  of  the  Union 
Pacific  a  few  months  later,  until  reinforcements  came : 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  435 

others,  more  highly  prized  even  than  messages  from 
senators,  ex-moderators,  college  and  seminary  profess- 
ors, and  secretaries  of  Church  Boards, — were  from  ap- 
preciative friends  and  associates  of  other  denominations 
or  from  natives  of  Alaska  who  had  experienced  the  up- 
lifting power  of  the  Gospel,  which  had  been  brought  to 
them  through  his  instrumentality. 

From  Cambridge,  Mass.,  under  date  of  May  23d,  Miss 
Frances  E.  Willard  sent  this  cheering  message  : — 

Honoured  and  Dear  Brother  :  — 

I  never  wrote  to  a  moderator  to  rejoice  that  he  had  at- 
tained that  high  position  in  the  great  Church  of  the  presbyter, 
but  you  are  one  of  my  heroes.  You  have  stood  for  all  our  Gos- 
pel means,  not  in  a  luxurious  parish  or  splendid  college,  but  out 
yonder  on  the  edge  of  things  where  God's  most  friendless  chil- 
dren turn  towards  you  the  eyes  of  pathos  and  hope.  Most  of 
all  have  those  down-trodden  women  of  Alaska  been  blessed  by 
work  that  you  have  done  or  have  inspired,  and  not  a  woman 
lives  who  has  a  brain  to  think  who  can  fail  to  look  upon  you  as 
one  of  the  blessed  reappearances  of  the  primitive  man  of  Christ, 
m  an  age  that  needs  such  men  more  than  it  needs  gold  or  tariff. 
God  bless  you  and  nerve  your  brave  arm  for  even  stronger 
strokes  of  grace  against  the  accursed  liquor  traffic  and  every 
other  form  of  cruelty,  is  the  prayer  of 

Your  Christian  Sister, 
Frances  E.  Willard. 

With  an  enthusiasm  as  hearty.  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher, 
Fellow  of  Peabody  Museum,  Harvard  University,  writes 
to  Mrs.  Jackson  : — 

1  have  written  "the  honour  shown"  your  husband,  but  I 
think  the  chair  of  moderator  was  never  so  honoured  aswhen  it 
was  filled  by  Dr.  Jackson.  1  count  it  one  of  the  honours  of  my 
life  that  1  have  been  permitted  to  know  him  so  well,  and  tolove 
him  for  his  grandeur  of  Christian  spirit.  I  am  so  glad  that  the 
Church  has  done  the  right  thing  in  so  recognizing  his  great 
work,  and  I  trust  that  the  prayer  of  his  heart  may  be  answered, 
and  that  there  will  be  a  great  awakening  of  the  missionary 
spirit,  for,  as  General  Harrison  said  in  his  speech  when  present- 


436  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ing  the  gavel,  it  is  a  revival  of  the  spirit  of  the  Master  among 
His  followers. 

My  love  to  you,  dear  Mrs.  Jackson,  for  you  too  share  in  the 
doctor's  labours  and  fame,  and  to  your  daughters. 

Sincerely  your  friend, 
Alice  C.  Fletcher. 

At  this  date  Alaska  was  blessed  with  a  Christian 
goverDor,  Hou.  John  G.  Brady,  who  wrote : — 

I  have  just  read  the  news  of  your  election  as  Moderator  of 
the  General  Assembly,  one  of  the  noblest  bodies  of  men  on  this 
earth.  I  am  not  only  glad,  but  rejoice  that  you  have  been 
crowned  with  this  honour  towards  the  closing  years  of  your 
wonderful  life. 

The  gavel  to  which  Miss  Fletcher  refers  in  the  above 
quotation,  was  presented  to  the  moderator  on  behalf  of 
the  Synod  of  Indiana,  by  ex- President  Harrison.  It  was 
made  up  of  oak,  poplar,  black  walnut,  beech  and  maple 
taken  from  the  material  and  furnishings  of  pioneer 
churches  and  schools.  Hence  it  was  fitting,  as  the 
speaker  intimated,  that  it  should  be  presented  to  one 
whose  life  had  been  so  much  associated  with  pioneer 
churches.  In  one  of  these  churches,  the  first  Presbyterian 
church  in  Indiana,  and  likewise  the  first  Protestant 
church,  the  father  of  General  Harrison  was  the  first  per- 
son to  receive  the  ordinance  of  Christian  baptism. 

At  a  later  date  Dr.  Jackson  was  presented  with  a  gold- 
headed  cane  made  of  wood  from  the  pulpit  of  the  Echo- 
both  church  in  Maryland.  The  following  letter  accom- 
panied this  gift : — 

Seventeenth  Century  to  Nineteenth  Century 
Presbyterianism  Greeting. 
Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.  D.,  L.  L.  D.  :  — 

The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Rehoboth,  Md.,  one  of  the 
group  of  churches  organized  near  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  by  Rev.  Francis  Makemie,  a  pioneer  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary of  the  seventeenth  century,   on   the  eastern   coast  of 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  437 

America,  sends  greeting  and  a  historical  cane  to  Dr.  Sheldon 
Jackson,  a  pioneer  missionary  of  the  nineteenth  century  on  the 
western  coast. 

This  cane  is  made  of  wood  from  Makemie's  old  pulpit  in  the 
church  at  Rehoboth,  Md.,  cut  in  times  before  the  Revolutionary 
War.  The  church  in  which  it  stood  was  organized  in  the  days 
when  King  Charles  II  ruled  over  the  land,  and  only  thirty-five 
years  after  tlie  Assembly  at  Westminster  had  sent  forth  our 
Confession  of  Faith  and  Catechisms, 

Very  truly  yours, 

Emerson  G.  Polk, 

Ruling     Elder    of    Presbyterian     Church, 

Rehoboth,  Md.  ;  Commissioner  of  Presbytery 

of   New    Castle    to    Gejieral  Assembly   of 

i8g8. 

The  General  Assembly  of  1897  was  convened  at  a  time 
when  wise  counsels  and  discreet  actions  were  needed  to 
meet  emergencies  whicli  threatened  the  unity  and  crip- 
pled the  energies  of  the  Church,  and  happily  for  the  cause 
and  for  the  interests  of  all  concerned  it  was  characterized 
throughout  its  sessions  by  a  spirit  of  harmony,  consecra- 
tion and  missionary  zeal  which  bore  down  all  incipient 
distrust  and  revived  the  love  and  devotion  of  former 
days.  The  benign  influence  of  Dr.  Withrow's  message 
at  the  opening  of  its  session  when  he  ''swept  the  Gospel 
harp  with  a  master  hand  and  filled  the  souls  of  his  hear- 
ers with  the  music  of  a  divine  charity ' '  was  a  most 
timely  and  important  factor  in  bringing  about  this  result : 
the  trumpet  call  of  the  several  speakers  in  the  nomination 
addresses  to  missionary  activity  was  doubtless  another, 
but  the  third  was  as  certainly  the  spirit  of  the  new 
moderator  as  evidenced  by  his  first  official  act  in  calling 
upon  Dr.  Minton,  his  defeated  opponent  to  unite  with  him 
in  constituting  the  personnel  of  the  working  machinery  of 
the  assembly.  This  was  an  act  of  generosity  unprece- 
dented in  the  history  of  our  ecclesiastical  bodies.  The 
angels,  said  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Observer,  must 


438  SHELDON  JACKSON 

have  beea  pleased  as  they  hovered  over  the  scene  when 
Moderator  Jackson  and  Dr.  Miuton  laboured  together  to 
select  the  committees.  We  shall  not  wonder  if  allitera- 
tion has  its  way  in  the  near  future,  and  Moderator  Minton 
holds  the  gavel. 

Eeferring  to  the  same  thing  the  editor  of  The  Interior 
said,  "  The  significance  of  this  is  that  if  Dr.  Minton  had 
been  elected  his  friends  could  not  have  been  better  satisfied 
in  the  constituting  of  the  working  machinery  than  they  now 
are.  There  was  immediate  and  perfect  confidence  and  co- 
operation between  the  brethren  who  in  the  matter  of  per- 
sonal preference  appeared  but  an  hour  before  to  be  upon 
opposing  sides." 

The  assembly  adjourned  on  the  21st  of  May,  and  by 
the  1st  of  June  its  moderator,  having  meanwhile  made  a 
hurried  trix)  to  Washington,  was  speeding  across  the  con- 
tinent by  fastest  trains,  to  make  a  connection  with  a  ves- 
sel awaiting  him  at  Seattle. 

On  the  12th  of  June,  he  embarked  on  the  steamship 
Fortland  at  Seattle  for  Unalaska  and  St.  Michaels,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Yukon  Elver.  The  last  named  port  was 
reached  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  June.  The  next 
day  the  Yukon  Elver  steamer  Partus  B.  Ware  arrived 
from  Dawson  with  a  half-million  dollars  worth  of  gold- 
dust  from  the  Klondike  and  Yukon  mining  camps.  It 
was  the  arrival  of  this  steamer  with  its  treasures  at  Seattle 
which  made  the  Klondike  region  so  famous  and  attracted 
to  it  thousands  of  gold-seekers  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 
On  the  trip  up  the  river  in  this  vessel,  which  left  its 
wharf  at  St.  Michaels  on  the  morning  of  July  5th,  Dr. 
Jackson  was  accompanied  by  Mr.  W.  A.  Kjellmau, 
superintendent  of  the  reindeer  station  at  Teller.  One 
object  of  the  journey  was  to  learn  from  actual  observation 
the  extent  of  the  supply  of  reindeer  moss  along  the  course 
of  the  Yukon  valley  with  a  view  to  the  establishment  of 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  439 

reindeer  routes  from  certain  ijoints  on  the  upper  reaches 
of  the  river  to  the  mining  camps  in  the  interior.  For 
this  reason  he  desired  to  have  the  assistance  of  one  who 
was  an  expert  in  such  matters.  This  wonderful  river, 
which  has  its  sources  among  the  high  mountains  of 
Canada  sweeps  northward  to  the  Arctic  Circle  and  thence 
by  a  series  of  graceful  curves  southwest  to  its  outlet  in 
Bering  Sea.  For  three  hundred  miles  above  the  head 
of  the  delta  it  is  so  wide  that  at  some  points  upon  one 
bank  the  other  cannot  be  seen.  At  other  locations  higher 
up  it  widens  out  into  a  lake-like  expanse  eighty  miles 
wide  and  it  is  navigable  for  light  steamers  for  2, 000  miles. 
The  fur  traders  were  the  first  adventurers  along  the  line 
of  this  great  waterway  and  many  of  the  older  settlements 
were  originally  trading  posts.  The  objective  point  of 
Dr.  Jackson's  long  journey  was  Dawson,  in  Canada, 
1,652  miles  above  St.  Michaels.  At  the  several  stopping- 
places  opportunity  was  afforded  him  to  look  after  the  in- 
terests of  the  schools  and  churches,  and  much  valuable 
information  was  secured  with  respect  to  the  location  of 
missions  in  the  newer  sections  towards  which  the  rush 
of  adventurers  had  already  commenced.  Dawson  was 
reached  on  the  morning  of  the  25tli  of  July.  On  the 
evening  of  the  next  day,  the  steamer  started  on  the  return 
trip  down  the  river.  Soon  after  leaving  Circle  City,  so 
called  because  of  its  nearness  to  the  Arctic  Circle,  the 
vessel  was  stranded  on  a  sand-bar,  where  it  lay  in  helj)- 
less  condition  for  nineteen  days.  At  the  end  of  this 
period  of  waiting  and  suspense,  a  steamer  coming  down 
the  river  was  hailed,  came  alongside,  and  to  it  the  pas- 
sengers were  transferred  for  the  remainder  of  the  journey. 
Mrs.  Alice  Palmer  Henderson,  a  fellow  voyager  on  this 
Yukon  tour,  gives  some  interesting  impressions  of  Dr. 
Jackson  as  a  traveller  : —  ' 


1 «' 


The  Rainbow's  Eud,  Alaska,"  p.  220. 


440  SHELDON  JACKSON 

"  I  have  travelled  with  him,"  she  writes,  "  for  weeks  at  a  time, 
and  I  have  never  seen  him  idle  for  a  moment.  He  never  hur- 
ries, but  just  persists.  Evidently  he  was  always  so.  He  is  a 
bad  sailor,  and  dislikes  the  constant  travel,  but  I  don't  think 
anybody  ever  heard  him  volunteer  the  information.  Whatever 
he  has  to  do,  he  accomplishes  without  reference  to  liking  or 
disliking.  Yet  he  always  finds  time  to  be  helpful  to  others. 
How  many  times  when  I  was  ingloriously  seasick  has  he  amused 
my  tiny  daughter,  cutting  out  paper  dolls  with  small  folding 
scissors  from  his  pocket — he  carries  everything,  I  never  saw 
such  a  man — or  drawing  pictures,  or  submitting  to  'bear 
hugs '  with  the  utmost  patience.  Not  a  person  aboard,  I 
think,  but  received  some  little  courtesy  from  him.  Up  the 
Yukon  one  of  the  ladies  lost  her  comb  and  was  in  despair. 
The  doctor  said  nothing  but  disappeared  and  returned  with  a 
comb.  '  1  always  carry  several,'  he  explained.  Another 
time  it  was  insect  powder ;  another,  absorbent  cotton,  and  so 
on  ;  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  he  had  not,  and  always  in 
sufficient  quantities  to  spare,  even  patience.  At  every  stop  he 
obtained  earth,  flowers,  shrubs,  etc.,  for  the  Agricultural  De- 
partment at  Washington,  and  was  running  over  with  infor- 
mation. ' ' 

At  St.  Michaels,  Jackson  took  passage  on  tlie  Bear  and 
made  the  round  of  the  schools  and  stations  ou  the  coast  of 
Bering  Sea.  Eeturuiug  to  St.  Michaels  he  was  trans- 
ferred with  his  belongings  to  the  revenue  cutter  Corwin, 
bound  for  San  Francisco.  Ou  the  first  day  of  November 
he  arrived  at  Washington,  thus  completing  in  safety  au 
interesting  and  wonderfully  diversified  journey  of  21,735 
miles. 

In  less  than  two  months  after  this  home-coming,  Dr. 
Jackson  was  requested  to  go  to  Lapland  as  a  ''special 
agent"  of  the  War  Department,  for  the  purpose  of  pur- 
chasing and  shipi^ing  to  the  United  States  as  many  head 
of  reindeer  as  in  his  judgment  should  be  needed  to  trans- 
port supplies  for  the  relief  of  a  large  number  of  miners 
in  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Yukon  valley,  who  were  re- 
ported to  be  short  of  provisions  and  in  danger  of  starva- 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  441 

tiou.  This  meant  a  midwinter  journey  to  a  point  nearly 
four  degrees  nortii  of  the  Arctic  Circle  in  Europe,  but 
without  hesitation  he  signified  his  readiness  to  go. 

On  the  18th  of  December,  Congress  voted  a  relief  fund 
of  $200,000  of  which  140,000  was  set  apart  for  the  pur- 
chase of  reindeer,  with  all  the  necessary  equipments  for 
the  comfort  and  efficiency  of  the  relief  expedition  on  the 
overland  journey,  by  way  of  the  <Chilkoot  pass,  to  its 
destination  in  the  Yukon  valley. 

On  the  20th  of  December,  General  Alger,  the  Secretary 
of  War,  notified  Dr.  Jackson  of  his  appointment  for  this 
difficult  and  dangerous 'mission  and  requested  him  to  get 
ready  to  go  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  Lieutenant 
D.  B.  Devore,  U.  S.  A.,  was  detailed  a  day  or  two  later  to 
accomi^any  him  as  disbursing  officer  and  assistant.  On 
the  23d  of  the  mouth,  he  reported  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
for  duty  in  response  to  this  emergency  call  and  on  the 
evening  of  the  same  day  left  his  home  for  New  York  City. 
The  day  following  was  devoted  mainly  to  conferences 
with  trans- Atlantic  steamship  companies  with  a  view  to 
making  arrangements  for  the  transportation  of  the  rein- 
deer, when  purchased,  to  the  United  States.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  same  day  he  went  aboard  the  steamship  Lucanla 
and  at  6:30  on  Christmas  morning  was  on  his  way  to  the 
objective  point  of  this  long  journey.  Before  the  emer- 
gency had  arisen  which  hurried  Sheldon  Jackson  away 
from  home  and  friends  at  the  opening  of  the  holiday 
season,  Mr.  Kjellman,  superintendent  of  the  reindeer  herd 
in  Alaska,  had  been  dispatched  to  Lapland  to  procure  a 
number  of  Lapp  herdsmen  and  was  engaged  in  the  fulfill- 
ing of  this  mission  when  he  received  a  notification  by 
telegraph  from  his  chief  in  New  York  of  the  changed 
conditions.  This  was  followed  by  instructions  to  engage 
and  send  out  all  the  assistants  he  could  use  to  expedite 
the  pmchase  of  the  reindeer  and  secure  herdsmen  to  ac- 


442  SHELDON  JACKSON 

company  tliem.  Owing  to  this  fortunate  coincidence  much 
valuable  time  was  saved.  At  Loudon,  which  was  reached 
at  ten  p.  m.,  December  31st,  it  was  decided  that  Lieuten- 
ant Devore  should  remain  until  he  could  charter  a  steamer 
for  the  transportation  of  the  deer  and  that  Jackson  should 
push  on  with  all  speed  to  some  i3oint  in  Norway  where  he 
could  supply  Mr.  Kjellman  with  money  to  pay  his  agents. 
As  the  result  of  a  Qonference  with  leading  officials  in 
London  it  was  also  decided  that  it  would  be  best  to  secure 
a  steamer  not  engaged  directly  in  the  cattle  trade  and 
transport  its  cargo  of  animals,  attendants  and  equipments 
direct  from  Lapland  to  New  York.  One  of  the  three  days 
which  Dr.  Jackson  spent  in  London  was  the  Sabbath. 
On  the  morning  of  that  day  he  attended  a  communion 
service  in  Dr.  Munro  Gibson's  Church  at  St.  John's  Wood. 
By  request  of  the  pastor  he  assisted  in  this  service  and 
after  the  distribut^ion  of  the  elements  was  introduced  to 
his  people,  to  whom  he  gave  a  few  w^ords  of  greeting,  as 
the  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  the  United  States.  For  one  in  his 
position,  the  errand  ui^on  which  he  was  going  must  have 
seemed  to  them  a  very  unusual  one,  and  certainly  it  was 
out  of  the  line  of  precedent  and  custom  in  his  own  laud 
as  well  as  the  lands  where  more  conservative  ideas  of 
rank  and  dignity  prevailed. 

On  the  3d  of  January,  he  resumed  his  journey,  travel- 
ling as  fast  as  boat  and  train  could  carry  him  through 
England,  Holland,  Denmark,  and  a  portion  of  the  long 
stretch  of  Norway  to  Trondhjem,  one  of  the  best  markets 
in  Norway  for  the  purchase  of  reindeer  moss.  Here  one 
day's  stop  was  made  to  complete  arrangements  which  Mr. 
Kjellman  had  inaugurated  for  the  purchase  of  several 
hundred  tons  of  this  moss  and  its  shipment  on  the  steamer 
which  Lieutenant  Devore  had  chartered  and  ordered  to 
this   port  on   its   upward   voyage.      Upon   the  arrival 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  443 

of  the  train  and  mail  from  Christiana  at  midnight, 
the  journey  was  resumed  by  vessel  to  Hammerfest,  the 
northernmost  city  on  the  globe.  Here  a  transfer  was 
made  to  a  smaller  vessel  which  steamed  up  the  Alten 
Fjord  at  the  head  of  which  lies  the  village  of  Bosekop, 
the  terminus  of  the  long  journey.  In  this  latitude  the  sun 
is  not  visible  from  November  20th  to  January  21st.  The 
date  of  Dr.  Jackson's  arrival  was  January  13th  and  hence 
it  was  not  only  Arctic  night  for  several  days  of  the  jour- 
ney, but  also  through  most  of  the  days  which  he  spent  at 
Bosekop.  On  the  IGth  of  January  Mr.  Kjellman  arrived 
from  the  interior,  having  been  delayed  two  days  on  the 
mountains,  where  he  had  been  lost  in  a  blizzard.  For 
nearly  two  nights  previous  and  the  intervening  day  he 
had  been  riding  without  sleep  or  rest.  He  reported  the 
welcome  news  that  500  trained  reindeer  with  sleds, 
harness,  and  fifty  Lapp  drivers,  had  been  secured  and 
would  soon  be  on  their  way  to  Bosekop  for  shii)ment. 

To  secure  this  outfit,  Mr.  Kjellman  had  found  it  neces- 
sary to  send  out  seven  agents  far  into  the  interior,  in  the 
darkest  and  most  inclement  season  of  the  year,  and  the 
aggregate  distance  travelled  by  them  in  reindeer  sledges 
on  this  errand  was  3,000  miles.  AYhen  the  mission  of  the 
several  agents  was  ended  it  was  found  that  the  expedi- 
tion Avas  made  up  of  538  reindeer,  418  sleds,  511  sets  of 
harness,  and  sixty-eight  Lapp  drivers,  with  their  wives 
and  children  (113  in  all).  The  return  voyage  with  some  of 
the  events  immediately  preceding  it  has  been  most 
graphically  described  by  Dr.  Field  of  the  Evangelist  : —  ' 

"  Such,"  he  writes,  referring  to  the  above  list,  "  was  the  unique 
shipment  that  was  to  be  brought  to  the  port  where  the  ship  had 
arrived  from  Glasgow,  and  was  waiting  only  for  the  Lapps  and 
the  deer  to  embark  on  their  voyage  across  the  sea  ! 

^Editorial  column  of  Evangelist,  March  10,  1898, 


444  SHELDON  JACKSON 

"  At  this  last  moment  the  Lord  put  our  good  doctor  to  a  final 
test  of  faith — for  there  came  the  most  tremendous  blizzard  he 
had  ever  seen  !  The  air  was  filled  with  the  blinding  snow,  and 
the  winds  howled  around  the  little  house  where  he  sat  and 
shivered,  for  nothing  could  withstand  that  wintry  blast.  Of 
course  it  was  hopeless  to  look  for  the  Lapps,  who  would  have  to 
cross  high  mountains,  that  were  swept  by  winds,  which  seemed 
to  come  from  the  very  North  Pole  itself !  Dr.  Jackson  is  never 
utterly  downcast,  but  as  he  heard  the  storm  gusts  around  him 
he  did  really  wish  that  this  blizzard  would  blow  itself  out,  and 
in  this  mood  he  rose  and  walked  to  the  window,  where  he 
scratched  away  the  frost  so  as  to  peer  out,  when  he  saw  some- 
thing that  seemed  to  be  alive,  and  behold  the  Lapps  themselves 
— every  man  of  them,  with  their  wives  and  children — had  come 
over  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  while  the  drivers  were  in  high 
glee  at  their  performance  !  And  not  only  were  the  hardy  men 
there,  but  the  women,  too,  and  not  the  smallest  chicken  of  a 
baby  suffered  from  this  wild  baptism  of  sleet  and  snow  ! 

"Then  to  transfer  the  whole  company  of  men,  women  and 
children,  with  a  herd  of  538  reindeer,  was  no  light  task.  But 
in  due  time  it  was  done,  and  all  sailed  away  from  the  shores  of 
dear  old  Lapland  ! 

"  Now  their  troubles  were  over  !  Not  quite  !  for  they  were 
still  in  high  latitudes,  as  their  course  took  them  within  a  hun- 
dred miles  of  Iceland,  and  when  they  got  thus  far,  it  seemed 
as  if  all  the  wild  forces  of  the  frozen  north  came  out  against 
them.  'Never,  never,'  says  Dr.  Jackson,  'in  all  my  voyages 
on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  did  I  see  anything  like  it.  How  the 
tempest  howled  and  the  winds  blew  !  Day  or  night  there  was 
little  sleep.     Only  cat  naps,  snatched  in  the  lull  of  the  storm.' 

"  '  Oh,  yes  !  '  I  said,  as  I  heard  the  story,  '  I  have  been  there  : 
I  have  crossed  all  the  oceans,*  and  know  what  a  storm  at  sea  is. 
But  there  is  always  this  satisfaction  that  the  fiercer  the  tempest, 
the  shorter  it  is,  for  it  blows  itself  out  !  So,  of  course  your 
storm  off  Iceland  didn't  last  long  ?  '  'Oh,  no,'  said  the  quiet 
doctor,  'only  nine  days  ! '     I  dropped  the  subject. 

"  After  all  these  storms  on  the  land  and  the  sea,  the  Lord  did 
at  last  bring  them  to  their  desired  haven,  and  the  good  ship 
entered  the  harbour  of  New  York,  with  the  loss  of  but  one  deer, 
and  that  not  from  the  sea,  but  from  fighting  !  for  two  deer  that 
were  in  one  pen  on  the  deck  had  a  little  'difference,'  and 
butted  with  heads  and  horns  (what  remained  of  them,  for  they 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  445 

were  sawed  off);  one  poor  deer  received  his  quietus,  and  was 
'rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep,'  and  sank  in  the  waves. 
But  all  the  rest  were  landed  safely  on  the  wharf  in  Jersey  City, 
and  put  on  board  of  a  train  specially  provided  for  them." 

During  the  continuance  of  this  tempestuous  voyage, 
which  lasted  twenty- three  days,  Dr.  Jackson  was  neces- 
sarily exposed  to  many  hardshix3S  and  unpleasant  expe- 
riences. No  mention  of  these  is  made  in  his  official  re- 
port, but  in  his  diary  of  events  some  facts  are  briefly 
mentioned  which  suggest  more  than  they  appear  to  set 
forth.  During  the  woi'st  of  the  storms  the  old  ship  be- 
haved beautifully,  he  says,  but  it  was  wet,  dirty  and  un- 
comfortable. While  he  and  his  assistant  had  the  privi- 
leges of  cabin  passengers,  all  of  the  available  spaces  on 
deck,  as  well  as  above  and  below  them,  were  utilized  for 
deer  pens,  the  odour  from  which  at  times  was  very  offen- 
sive. On  the  hurricane  deck,  directly  above,  there  were 
130  deer  which  were  drench«!d  day  after  day  and  night  after 
night,  while  the  storms  lasted,  with  the  breaking  waves. 
Between  the  lurches  of  the  vessel  much  of  the  waste 
water,  so  continuouslj^  dashed  upon  the  occupants  of  this 
deck,  percolated  through  the  floor,  and  dripped  from  the 
ceiling  of  the  stateroom.  There  were  times  when  the 
water,  swashed  back  and  forth  on  the  floor  of  the  room, 
making  it  necessary  to  put  in  a  temporary  floor  above  the 
water,  while  to  this  was  added  the  discomfort  and  peril 
of  a  damp  mattress  for  an  entire  week.  This  dampness 
was  caused  by  tlie  condensation  of  the  breath  on  the  cold 
walls  of  the  room,  and  for  this  there  was  no  remedy. 
Through  a  series  of  physical  discomforts  and  humiliating 
experiences  such  as  these  the  Moderator  of  the  109th  Gen- 
eral Assembly  returned  from  his  first  visit  to  Europe. 
The  most  that  he  had  seen  of  it  was  in  glimpses  from  the 
windows  of  swiftly-moving  trains  or  the  decks  of  ice- 
coated  steamers.     Before  him  day  and  night  on  this  per- 


U6  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ilous  journey  in  every  moment  of  consciousness  tliere 
was  one  dominant  thought — How  to  reach  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment  the  imperilled  men  in  the  Yukon  valley 
with  the  necessaries  of  life  by  means  of  the  herd  of  trained 
deer  which  he  was  commissioned  to  bring  from  far-away 
Lapland.  With  this  one  thing  before  him  he  endured 
hardness,  risked  exposures  and  cheerfully  gave  up  his 
own  preferences  and  prerogatives.  The  celerity  with 
which  he  accomplished  this  mission,  in  view  of  all  the 
difficulties,  was  little  short  of  marvellous. 

Starting  out  on  this  errand  in  response  to  an  emergency 
call  he  sailed  away  from  the  harbour  of  New  York,  in  the 
gray  dawning  of  Christmas  morning,  with  but  a  vague 
idea  of  the  means  to  be  used  or  the  agencies  to  be  em- 
ployed. Some  two  mouths  later  he  was  back  from  the 
farthest  north  of  human  habitation  in  Europe,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  same  port,  in  a  chartered  vessel,  with 
broken  prow,  battered  sides,  and  crushed  life-boats,  in 
which  were  the  full  complement  of  the  reindeer  he  was 
commissioned  to  bring  ;  moss  in  abundance  for  their  sus- 
tenance until  the  pastures  of  Alaska  should  be  reached  ; 
a  full  outfit  of  sledges  and  harness  and  a  brave  little  col- 
ony of  Laplanders,  Norwegians  and  Finns,  who  were  hur- 
riedly summoned  from  home  and  native  land  to  join 
forces  with  this  impromptu  expedition.  The  next  day 
after  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  off  Sandy  Hook  the  deer 
were  unloaded  and  the  day  following  they  were  on  their 
way  to  the  seaport  of  Seattle,  on  the  Pacific  coast,  under 
the  charge  of  an  officer  of  the  army.  Here  Dr.  Jackson's 
connection  with  and  responsibility  for  the  expedition,  as 
special  agent  of  the  War  Department,  ceased,  and  he  re- 
turned to  his  home  and  regular  work  in  Washington. 

It  was  included  in  the  plan  of  relief,  as  originally  out- 
lined, that  the  reindeer  purchased  in  Lapland  should  be 
sent  without  delay  across  the  country  to  Circle  City,  or 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  44Y 

some  other  point  in  the  Yukon  valley,  but  before  they 
hiid  reached  the  coast  of  Alaska  information  had  been 
received  that  the  miners  had  a  sufficient  store  of  supplies 
to  tide  them  over  until  the  opening  of  the  spring  season, 
and  hence  the  rescue  feature  of  the  expedition  was  aban- 
doned. It  was  deemed  best,  however,  to  take  the  deer 
directly  to  the  Yukon  valley  for  freighting  purposes,  and 
with  this  in  view,  arrangements  were  already  being  made 
to  transfer  the  herd  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 
On  the  10th  of  March,  nine  days  after  he  had  reached  his 
home.  Dr.  Jackson  was  directed  by  the  Commissioner  of 
Education,  under  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  to  go  at  once  to  the  Pacific  coast  and  resume 
charge  of  the  Lajjps  and  the  reindeer,  it  having  been 
arranged  that  they  would  be  turned  over  to  him  on  his 
arrival  by  the  officer  of  the  army  in  charge.  Leaving 
Washington  on  the  11th,  he  overtook  the  herd  at  Seattle 
on  the  16th  of  March.  The  deer  were  then  being  loaded 
on  a  steamer  which  should  have  been  at  the  wharf  on 
their  arrival  by  train  eight  or  nine  days  before.  Owing 
to  this  delay  and  a  still  more  serious  delay  at  the  Haiues 
Mission,  Alaska,  where  the  deer  were  landed  on  the  27th 
of  March,  the  supply  of  moss  was  exhausted  several  days 
before  the  overland  expedition  could  move.  The  substi- 
tution of  alfalfa  and  grass  for  their  ordinary  winter  forage 
weakened  them  and  unfitted  a  large  number  for  travel. 
When  the  attempt  .was  made,  at  length,  to  reach  the  moss 
pasturage  at  the  head  of  the  Chilkat  valley,  about  sixty 
miles  distant,  many  lagged  behind  for  lack  of  strengtli,  ; 
and  daj^  by  day  the  death  roll  from  weakness  or  starva- 
tion grew  to  alarming  proportions.  If  the  arrangements 
for  transfer  at  Seattle,  and  the  necessary  provisions  for 
the  herders  at  Haines  had  been  made  in  advance  by  those 
to  whom  these  details  had  been  committed  long  before, 
the  herd  could  have  been  driven  without  any  great  loss  to 


448  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Circle  City  or  any  other  point  in  the  Yukon  valley.  As 
it  turned  out  nothing  could  be  done  but  make  the  best  of 
the  situation  and  carry  forward  by  slow  marches  as  many 
as  possible,  until  permanent  pasturage  could  be  reached 
on  the  north  summit  of  the  Chilkat  Pass. 

At  Skagway,  near  the  entrance  to  the  pass,  Dr.  Jack- 
son left  the  herd  in  charge  of  an  assistant  and  took  pas- 
sage in  a  steamer  bound  for  Seattle.  Thence  he  returned 
to  the  East,  arriving  at  his  home  in  Washington,  on  the 
23d  of  April.  The  total  loss  to  the  herd  from  starvation 
before  the  moss  pastures  were  reached  was  362.  After- 
wards in  the  early  stages  of  the  long  journey  to  Circle 
City,  a  number  died  that  were  unable  to  recover  their  lost 
vigour,  and  at  the  end  there  were  only  141  remaining  out 
of  the  herd  of  528  which  were  lauded  at  the  Haines  Mis- 
sion. These  survivors  were  in  excellent  condition,  how- 
ever, at  the  date  of  their  arrival,  and  at  a  later  date  were 
exchanged  for  an  equal  number  of  Siberian  reindeer  be- 
longing to  the  Episcopal  mission  on  the  Yukon,  which 
were  then  at  the  Eaton  Eeiudeer  Station. 

The  disastrous  ending  of  this  expedition  which  promised 
so  well  at  the  outset,  was  not  chargeable  in  any  way  to 
the  Bureau  of  Education  or  its  general  agent  in  charge 
of  the  work  in  Alaska.  And  yet  it  has  often  been  quoted 
as  an  illustration  of  the  folly  or  useless  extravagance  of 
those  who  were  responsible  for  the  introduction  of  the 
reindeer  industry  among  the  Eskimos  of  that  country. 
Referring  to  some  public  statements  based  on  this  false 
assumption,  the  Hon.  John  G.  Brady,  the  governor  of  the 
territory  at  the  date  of  these  occurrences,  says  in  his  an- 
nual report  for  1899  : — 

The  purchase  of  several  hundred  reindeer  in  Norway  and 
Lapland  and  their  shipment  across  the  Atlantic  and  the  con- 
tinent, and  by  steamship  again  from  Seattle  to  Haines  Mission, 
and  the  dying  of  a  large  percentage  of  them  at  that  point,  and 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  449 

all  the  subsequent  evils,  had  7iothmg  whatever  to  do  with  the 
problem  of  the  introduction  of  domestic  reindeer  into  Western 
and  Northern  Alaska  for  the  use  of  the  Esquimos.  When 
editors  and  writers  raise  the  cry  of  "  failure"  and  '*  fad  "  they 
simply  show  that  they  are  not  acquainted  with  the  facts,  or,  if 
they  are,  that  they  are  prejudiced  and  are  not  willing  to  stick 
to  the  truth. 

Equally  false  and  misleading  were  the  statements,  made 
and  circulated  through  the  public  press,  that  Dr.  Jack- 
son was  responsible  for  the  reports  that  American  miners 
were  in  imminent  danger  of  starvation  while  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  as  one  writer  puts  it,  ''the  Yukoners  had  enough 
to  eat  and  indigestion  besides."  ^  Aside  from  the  well- 
known  facts  that  these  reports  came  to  the  government 
from  various  sources,  it  goes  without  saying  that  the 
action  taken  by  President  McKinley's  Cabinet  in  organ- 
izing a  relief  expedition  and  by  the  Congress  in  voting  a 
fund  of  $200,000,  must  have  been  based  upon  something 
more  than  a  rumour  for  which  one  man,  and  he  a  mis- 
sionary, was  responsible.  There  is  evidence  also  in  the 
records  of  the  War  Department  that  in  the  fall  of  1897 
starvation  was  imminent  at  Dawson  and  was  felt  to  be  so 
by  the  residents  there.  This  danger  was  so  great  that  a 
thousand  men  sold  out  their  supplies  and  came  out  of  the 
country  over  one  of  the  passes  before  the  winter  came  on. 
It  is  also  a  matter  of  record  that  seven  hundred  persons 
went  down  the  river  to  Fort  Yukon  where  they  were  fed 
during  the  winter  and  spring  from  government  supplies 
by  the  commander.  Captain  Ray.  Furthermore,  it  ap- 
pears from  official  reports  that  at  least  two  hundred  of 
the  residents  died  of  scurvy  or  other  diseases  caused  by 
the  scarcity  of  wholesome  and  nourishing  food  supplies. 

About  the  time  of  his  return  to  Washington,  Sheldon 

'Article    in    Jauuary    number  of   Appleton's  Magazine,   1906,  by 
Rex  E.  Beach, 


450  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Jacksou  received  another  appointment  from  the  Secretary 
of  War  authorizing  him  to  act  as  the  special  agent  of  the 
War  Department  in  paying  the  salaries  and  looking  after 
the  interests  of  the  Laplanders  whom  he  had  secured  for 
service  in  that  department  under  contract  until  Janu- 
ary 31,  1899.  With  the  consent  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  he  undertook  this  work  in  connection  with  his 
annual  tour  of  inspection  in  Alaska.  On  the  17th  of 
May  he  left  Washington  City  on  this  errand,  arranging 
for  a  stop  at  Winona  Lake  in  order  that  he  might  fulfill 
the  obligations  which  rested  upon  him  as  the  retiring 
Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly.  On  the  19th  of 
May  he  preached  the  opening  sermon  and  presided  until 
his  successor  was  chosen. 

The  sermon  was  based  upon  the  emphatic  word  of 
command  given  through  Moses  to  the  people  of  Israel 
after  the  crossing  of  the  brook  Zered,—"  Begin  to  possess 
that  thou  may  est  inherit  the  land"  (Deut.  2  :  31).  The 
central  thought  of  this  stirring  sermon,  which  well  ac- 
corded with  the  ruling  passion  of  his  own  ministerial  life, 
was  the  taking  and  holding  of  the  magnificent  domain — 
"stretching  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  from  tropical  gulf 
to  frozen  North,"  which  God  has  given  to  His  people  by 
promise  and  providential  orderings,  — as  an  actual  posses- 
sion and  a  base  of  operation  for  the  conversion  of  the  world. 

Sheldon  Jackson's  year  of  service  as  Moderator  of  the 
General  Assembly  was  probably  the  busiest  of  all  the 
busy  years  of  his  eventful  life.  His  midsummer  tour, 
upon  which  he  started  at  the  close  of  the  Assembly  of 
1897,  included  the  Klondike,  in  the  upper  reaches  of  the 
Yukon  valley,  the  usual  round  of  stations  on  the  coast 
of  Bering  Sea,  and  at  one  or  two  points  touched  the 
Arctic  Circle  on  the  north. 

His  midwinter  tour,  undertaken  less  than  two  months 
later,  carried  him  into  the  darkness  of  the  Arctic  night, 


STRENUOUS  LABOURS  451 

and  up  to  the  farthest  limits  of  civilized  life  on  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe.  On  the  one,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as 
the  superintendent  of  schools,  reindeer  stations  and  mis- 
sions, he  found  time  to  gather  valuable  information  and 
materia*  for  the  use  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
acting  under  appointment  as  its  si^ecial  agent :  on  the 
other  he  served  the  War  Department  as  its  special  agent, 
also,  in  an  enterprise  involving  more  unusual  labours 
and  perplexing  experiences  than  any  other  undertaking, 
within  the  same  period  of  time,  in  his  life.  During  the 
same  eventful  year,  he  made  his  second  tour  to  Alaska, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  re- 
turning from  Skagway,  its  farthest  limit,  about  three 
weeks  before  the  opening  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
1898. 

The  aggregate  of  the  distances  travelled  on  these  jour- 
neys was  37,624  miles. 

How  this  ubiquitous  itinerant  managed  to  keep  abreast 
of  the  correspondence  growing  out  of  all  these  varied 
relations  and  activities,  which  met  him  at  several  previ- 
ously designated  points  en  route,  is  a  mystery  which  the 
writer  does  not  pretend  to  solve.  Many  things  are  pos- 
sible, however,  to  the  man  who  ''never  hurries,  but  just 
persists." 

While  he  held  the  office  of  moderator.  Dr.  Jackson 
received  the  honourary  degree  of  LL.  D.,  from  Richmond 
College,  Indiana,  and  Union  College,  New  York,  his 
alma  mater. 

As  for  banquets  and  junketing  parties,  the  usual  ac- 
companiments of  the  office,  all  but  one  or  two  had  to  be 
ruled  out,  because  of  the  difficulty  of  locating  or  reaching 
t.he  man  in  whose  honour  they  were  to  be  held. 


XX 

t 

EDUCATIONAL  AND  MISSIONARY  WORK 
(1898-1908) 

"Our  brave  missionaries  are  making  history  for  us.  They  are  the 
pioneers  of  civilization,  and  if  what  they  have  done  be  not  recognized 
now,  it  will  be  hereafter.  When  we  are  all  dead  and  gone,  and  our 
Western  Archipelago  is  no  longer  a  wilderness ;  when  church  spires 
rise  out  of  the  primeval  forest,  and  the  sound  of  the  church-going 
bell  is  heard  over  these  woods  and  waters  ;  then  will  the  historians 
of  that  day  seek  among  the  graves  of  the  fathers  to  whom  Alaska 
owes  its  schools  and  churches,  and  no  name  will  be  held  in  more 
grateful  remembrance  than  that  of  Sheldon  Jackson. ' ' — Bev.  Henry  M. 
Field,  D.  D.,  "  Our  Western  Archipelago,^'  p.  149. 

AFTER  the  adjournment  of  the  General  Assembly, 
Dr.  Jackson  continued  his  journey  across  the 
continent  to  Seattle.  At  this  point  he  arranged 
for  the  transportation  of  a  number  of  Lapps  who  had 
been  left  at  Fort  Townsend,  to  the  reindeer  headquarters 
near  TJnalakleet.  On  their  arrival  at  this  station  they 
were  assigned  to  duty  with  the  herds  at  such  places  as 
the  deer  were  likely  to  be  used  to  carry  the  mails  or  to 
transport  goods  to  points  not  easily  reached  by  the  ordi- 
nary modes  of  transportation. 

When  the  term  of  enlistment  of  these  men  had  expired 
some  reenlisted  for  service  with  the  herds,  some  returned 
to  their  native  land,  but  the  larger  number  remained  in 
the  country  and  sought  employment  in  the  mining  camps 
of  Nome  and  vicinity  or  staked  out  claims  and  went  to 
work  on  their  own  account.  It  has  been  stated  on  re- 
liable authority  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  number 
thus  engaged  made  fortunes  in  the  Cape  Nome  fields. 

452 


Sheldon   Jackson 
Golden  Wedding.  May   i8,   1908 


Mary  Vookhees  Jackson 
Golden   Wedding,   May   i8,   1908 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  453 

When  he  had  completed  the  task  assigned  him  by  the 
War  Department,  in  connection  with  these  wards  of  the 
government,  Dr.  Jackson  gave  the  remainder  of  the  season 
to  the  work  of  his  own  department.  After  visiting  some 
of  the  stations  on  the  Bering  Sea  coast  he  made  a  trip 
to  Siberia  for  the  purpose  of  securing  enough  reindeer  to 
replace  those  which  had  been  borrowed  from  the  station 
at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  by  the  rescue  party,  sent  to  the 
imprisoned  whalers,  at  Point  Barrow.  While  not  so  suc- 
cessful as  he  had  hoped  to  be,  he  managed  to  secure  161 
for  that  purx)ose.  When  the  deer  were  safely  landed  at 
Port  Clarence  the  vessel  sailed  for  St.  Michaels  by  way  of 
TJualakleet.  Here,  on  the  21st  of  August,  connections 
were  made  with  a  steamer  for  Seattle.  Thence  the  jour- 
ney was  continued  by  rail  to  Washington. 

In  the  summer  of  1899,  Dr.  Jackson  made  a  detour 
westward  to  the  peninsula  of  Kamchatka  in  connection 
with  his  annual  visit  to  Bering  Sea.  The  route  taken 
by  the  Bear  on  this  voyage  was  almost  directly  west  from 
Unalaska  and  for  much  of  the  way  skirted  the  northern 
coasts  of  the  Aleutian  Islands.  The  first  landing  place 
in  this  portion  of  the  Eussian  i)OSsessions  was  Petro- 
pavlovsk  (Peter  and  Paul),  the  capital  of  Kamchatka. 
The  object  of  the  detour  was  to  secure  a  larger  number  of 
reindeer,  if  possible,  than  the  government  agents  had 
been  able  to  purchase  in  Siberia.  From  Petropavlovsk 
the  vessel  sailed  northward,  stopping  wherever  there  was 
any  prospect  of  securing  deer,  to  Karaginski  Island  at 
the  upper  end  of  the  peninsula.  Thence  the  vessel  was 
headed  in  a  northeasterly  direction  along  the  Siberian 
coast  to  Gambell  on  the  Island  of  St.  Lawrence.  The 
voyage  to  Kamchatka  was  a  disappointment,  so  far  as 
its  main  object  was  concerned,  but  after  several  ineffec- 
tual attempts  eighty  three  deer  were  secured  and  safely 
lauded  at  Port  Clarence.     The  failhest  point  north  which 


454  SHELDON  JACKSON 

was  reached  by  the  Bear  on  the  cruise  of  inspection 
which  followed  this  venture,  was  Cape  Blossom  in 
Kotzebue  Sound,  a  few  miles  beyond  the  crossing  of  the 
Arctic  Circle.  The  return  journey  was  made  by  way  of 
Southeastern  Alaska.  On  the  way  to  Petr»pavlovsk  a 
day  was  dropped  out  of  the  ship's  calendar  on  the  13th  of 
June,  at  the  crossing  of  the  180th  degree  of  west  lougitude, 
'  and  was  regained  on  the  11th  of  July,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Cape  Navarin.  The  tour  as  a  whole  covered  a  distance 
of  18,859  miles. 

While  absent  upon  this  long  cruise  a  cowardly  attack 
was  made  upon  Dr.  Jackson  by  a  little  coterie  of  vindic- 
tive enemies  at  Juneau,  Alaska.  The  immediate  occasion 
of  this  outbreak  was  a  sensational  rejjort  of  the  United 
States  Grand  Jury  on  the  conduct  of  educational  matters 
in  Alaska.  The  prime  mover  in  the  vindictive  and  over- 
wrought accusation  brought  against  the  General  Agent  of 
Education  at  this  time,  which  differed  but  little  in  spirit 
from  the  conspiracy  of  1885,  was  a  former  official  of  the 
territory,  who  had  long  sought  an  opportunity  to  combine 
the  element  which  decried  all  attempts  to  elevate  the  na- 
tives against  him,  with  a  view  to  securing  his  removal 
from  office. 

Eeferriug  to  the  newspaper  comments  based  upon  the 
alleged  finding  of  the  grand  jury  the  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Interior  said  : — 

We  note  that  certain  parties  in  Alaska  have  taken  advantage 
of  Dr.  Jackson's  absence  upon  the  high  seas  to  attack  him  and 
his  work  with  bitterest  malevolence  and  falsehood.  They 
parade  figures  which  catch  the  eye,  concealing  facts  which 
would  show  the  utter  absurdity  of  their  charges.  They  have 
secured  the  publication  of  this  Hbelous  report  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  republic  by  securing  its  distribution  as 
press  news.  We  have  long  known  the  character  of  the  men 
who  have  opposed  Dr.  Jackson,  and  we  know  how  some  of 
them  have  disgraced  their  official  positions.     But  it  need  only 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  455 

be  said  that  thirty  odd  years  spent  on  the  frontier  have  abun- 
dantly qualified  him  for  taking  care  of  himself.  Upon  his  re- 
turn from  the  present  expedition,  whither  he  has  been  sent  by 
the  government  which  knows  and  trusts  him,  he  will  give  par- 
ticular attention  to  his  enemies  should  he  deem  the  game  worth 
the  candle.  Meanwhile  we  caution  all  our  readers  how  they 
accept  these  libels,  sent  out  through  press  agencies  for  purposes 
best  known  at  home ;  and  all  that  we  need  say  for  Dr.  Jackson 
personally  is  that  he  has  by  a  long  life  of  purity,  courage  and 
generosity  made  a  thousand  enemies  among  the  vicious,  and 
ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  friends  among  those  who  can 
appreciate  honour,  courage  and  self-sacrifice. 


When  the  time  came  for  the  investigatiou  of  the  state- 
ments, so  recklessly  promulgated,  they  were  found  to  be 
unsupported  by  reliable  evidence  and  were  not  deemed 
worthy  of  serious  consideration.  In  the  absence  of  any 
official  statement  the  Commissioner  of  Education  regarded 
the  alleged  report  of  the  grand  jury  as  "a  hoax."  This 
he  was  justified  in  doing  because  it  did  not  deal  with 
specific  charges  or  with  a  statement  of  specific  facts  after 
the  prescribed  form  for  such  reports.  Referring  to  one 
item  of  this  alleged  reiDort,  the  importation  of  reindeer 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Eskimo,  he  says,  in  an  open  letter 
to  the  editor  of  the  Fost  Intelligencer  of  Seattle  : — 


Aside  from  the  evident  lack  of  knowledge  as  to  the  condition 
of  government  schools  in  Southeast  Alaska  and  to  the  policy  of 
the  government,  I  do  not  believe  that  a  grand  jury  could  be 
found  in  any  state,  territory  or  district,  which  would  go  out  of 
its  way  to  criticise  an  experiment  which  it  could  not  by  any 
possibility  have  any  personal  knowledge  of  in  the  way  of  in- 
spection or  otherwise.  The  reindeer  experiment  which  is  pro- 
vided for  from  year  to  year  by  the  general  government  is  car- 
ried on  at  a  distance  of  from  2,100  to  2,700  miles  by  sea  from 
Sitka,  and  the  experiment,  instead  of  being  a  failure,  as  stated 
in  the  alleged  grand  jury  report,  is  a  success  in  all  the  main 
particulars. 


466  SHELDON  JACKSON 

In  reply  to  the  iusiuuation  iu  this  report  that  the  Gen- 
eral Agent  of  Education  for  Alaska  had  misappropriated 
government  funds,  ex-Governor  Sheakley,  who  for  about 
ten  years  preceding  had  been  a  member  of  the  School 
Board  for  Alaska,  by  appointment  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  asserted  publicly  and  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion, that  Dr.  Jackson  had  never  handled  any  of  this 
money,  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  was  always  paid 
out  by  voucher  directly  from  the  office  of  the  department. 

Some  of  the  most  vigorous  protests  against  these  unjust 
and  unfair  criticisms  were  made  by  the  officers  of  the 
revenue  cutters  in  which  Dr.  Jackson  was  carried  from 
point  to  point  in  the  prosecution  of  his  work. 

In  reply  to  one  of  these  letters  of  protest  written  by 
Captain  W.  F.  Kilgore,  United  States  Steamer  Perry^ 
Dr.  Harris,  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  says : — 

I  write  to  thank  you  for  your  letter  of  October  20th,  Sitka, 
relating  to  the  attacks  made  upon  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson. 
Your  letter  is  the  best  document  I  have  received.  The  attacks 
upon  Dr.  Jackson  are  so  constant  and  so  venomous  that  I  am 
very  glad  to  get  a  letter  from  an  officer  in  a  different  depart- 
ment of  the  United  States  service,  and  from  one  like  yourself 
•  whose  words  have  weight  and  convincing  effect.  For  ten  years 
or  more  I  have  heard  complaints  of  all  kinds  against  Dr.  Jack- 
son but  I  have  never  in  any  case  found  that  the  charges  would 
bear  investigating,  and  I  could  adopt  no  words  better  than  your 
own  to  describe  my  impressions  of  the  man,  after  working  with 
him  as  a  co-labourer  for  many  years,  namely,  that  he  is  a  man 
of  the  highest  integrity,  and  honest  in  his  dealings  with  his  fel- 
low men.  ^ 

While  these  foolish  and  baseless  charges  were  thus  set 
aside,  and  utterly  failed  of  their  avowed  purpose,  they 
did  nevertheless  influence  many  persons  who  were  igno- 
rant of  the  facts,  and  who  perhaps  never  saw  anything 
from  official  or  other  reliable  sources,  in  reply. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  457 

On  the  23d  of  April,  1900,  Jackson  left  his  home  for 
another  long  cruise  in  Bering  Sea  and  along  the  coast  of 
Siberia.  The  outward  journey  was  made  by  way  of  South- 
eastern Alaska  to  Sitka  and  thence  along  the  North 
Pacific  coast  to  Unalaska.  After  he  had  made  his  usual 
tour  of  inspection  among  the  several  missions  and  schools 
of  instruction,  the  vessel  was  headed  for  the  Siberian  coast 
for  the  purx)Ose  of  securing  some  additional  reindeer  for 
the  government  herd.  On  this  errand,  the  ship  forced  its 
way  through  ice-packs  and  dense  fogs  as  far  northward  as 
Kolyachiu  Bay,  Ai-ctic  Siberia.  Owing  to  the  prevalence 
of  a  fatal  epidemic  which  in  some  places  had  swept  off 
from  one-fourth  to  one-half  of  the  inhabitants,  the  usual 
market  places  were  abandoned  and  those  who  remained  in 
the  coast  towns  were  too  much  discouraged  to  aid  in 
securing  deer  from  the  herds  in  the  interior.  As  a  result, 
only  twenty-nine  reindeer  could  be  secured  at  this  time. 

This  tour  occupied  nearly  five  mouths  in  time  and 
covered  a  stretch  of  16,587  miles.  It  was  Sheldon  Jack- 
son's last  cruise  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  In  the  summer  of 
1901,  and  again  in  the  summer  of  1902,  he  inspected  the 
school  and  reindeer  stations  on  the  northern  shore  of 
Bering  Sea,  delegating  to  Mr.  Hamilton,  his  assistant, 
the  work  in  Arctic  Alaska.  This  limitation  of  his  field 
of  active  labour  was  made  necessary  by  the  development 
of  a  serious  and  painful  internal  disorder, — aggravated 
by  many  years  of  hardshii)  and  exposures — which  in  its 
incipient  stages  dated  back  to  the  year  1886.  There  were 
but  few  of  Dr.  Jackson's  most  intimate  friends  who  knew 
that  his  health  was  so  seriously  impaired  ;  and,  in  the 
midst  of  his  abundant  labours,  he  gave  no  sign  of  this 
constant  and  at  times  excruciating  suffering.  While  con- 
tinuing instant  in  season  and  out  of  season,  doing  the  full 
measure  of  each  day's  work  as  it  came  before  him,  there 
never    passed    a    day,    perhaps,    since  the  date    men- 


458  SHELDON  JACKSON 

tioned,  in  which  he  could  say  that  he  was  free  from 
suffering. 

In  the  spring  of  1903,  the  disease  assumed  a  more  acute 
form  and  his  condition  was  such  that  his  physician  inter- 
posed when  he  began  to  arrange  for  another  summer  tour 
and  warned  him  not  to  make  the  attempt.  Recognizing 
the  wisdom  of  this  kindly  warning,  he  remained  at  home. 
Since  that  date  he  has  given  up  the  field  work  into  the 
hands  of  Dr.  Hamilton  :  and,  while  keeping  his  hand 
over  it  in  all  its  phases  and  developments,  has  given  his 
time,  despite  his  illness  and  infirmity,  to  the  office  and  its 
daily  demands  in  Washington  City. 

During  this  period  of  enforced  retirement  and  acute 
suffering,  a  new  phase  of  the  opposition  which  had  so 
persistently  assailed  him  in  the  past,  an  echo  of  the  former 
attack  appeared  under  sensational  head-lines,  first  in  the 
columns  of  the  New  Yorh  Herald^  in  the  summer  of  1906, 
and  afterwards  in  most  of  the  leading  papers  of  the 
country. 

In  substance,  it  professed  to  be  the  report  of  the  un- 
earthing of  a  scandal  connected  with  the  management  of 
the  schools  and  reindeer  stations  of  Alaska,  by  Mr. 
Frank  G.  Churchill,  who  had  been  sent  out  to  that  coun- 
try on  a  special  mission  of  inspection  and  investigation 
under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in 
the  summer  of  1905.  The  object  and  animus  of  the  pub- 
lic attack  of  the  Herald  under  this  guise  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  the  writer  of  the  article  in  question 
had  access  to  the  full  and  conclusive  reply  made  to  the 
allegations  of  Mr.  Churchill  by  Dr.  Harris,  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  which  was  bound  up  with  them  in 
the  same  public  document,  by  express  order  of  the 
United  States  Senate.  Ignoring  this,  he  framed  his 
sensational  charges  upon  a  report  which  had  been  already 
discredited  in  several  of  its  details  by  those  best  qualified 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  459 

to  judge  of  its  value.  In  answer  to  the  charge  that  the 
government  had  been  wronged  in  the  distribution  of  the 
reindeer  herds  and  in  the  contracts  made  with  mission 
stations,  it  was  shown  conclusively  that  the  purpose  of  the 
department  was  to  distribute  the  deer  among  the  natives 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  consistent  with  their  ability  to  care 
for  them,  and  not  to  accumulate  herds  for  its  own  use  or 
I)rofit.  In  accordance  with  this  policy  it  was  shown  that 
in  1905  the  natives  had  earned  and  were  actually  caring 
for  thirty-eight  per  cent,  of  all  the  deer  in  Alaska,  while 
the  government  still  retained  thirty  per  cent.,  the  re- 
mainder beiug  distributed  in  the  industrial  schools  at  the 
mission  stations,  or  among  the  Lax)p  herders  as  a  com- 
pensation for  their  services. 

In  reply  to  the  charge  that  the  deer  had  been  expen- 
sively and  inefficiently  handled  at  the  mission  stations, 
the  Commissioner  of  Education  promptly  fui-nished  the 
proof  from  statistics  in  his  office,  that  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  herds  at  the  mission  stations  had  been  much 
less  than  at  the  government  stations,  and  also  that  the  re- 
sults had  been  more  satisfactory.  It  is  a  significant  fact 
in  this  connection  that  after  Congress  had  received  and 
considered  the  report  of  Mr.  Churchill,  recommending 
that  the  reindeer  herds  in  Alaska  be  taken  away  from 
the  mission  stations,  action  was  taken,  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  this  recommendation, — ''directing  that  all  rein- 
deer owned  by  the  United  States  in  Alaska  shall,  as  soon 
as  practicable,  be  turned  over  to  the  missions  in  Alaska, 
to  be  held  and  used  by  them  under  such  conditions  as  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  shall  prescribe."  ' 

The  insinuation  that  the   Presbyterian  missions  had 

been  specially  favoured  in  the  apportionment  of  reindeer, 

was  also  promptly  met  with  the  official  statement  of  the 

Board,   througli  its  president  and  secretary — "that  the 

'  Senate  Documeut,  59tli  Cougress,  No.  483. 


460  SHELDON  JACKSON 

Presbyterian  Churcli  had  never  owned  a  deer  or  claimed 
to  own  a  deer  in  Alaska."  At  the  close  of  this  state- 
ment, which  deals  with  the  charge  made  against  it  only, 
these  officials  say  : — "  Dr.  Jackson  needs  no  defense  be- 
fore the  Presbyterian  Church  or  any  other  denomination  at 
work  in  Alaska.  The  entire  Christian  public  so  regard 
his  disinterested  patriotism,  his  far-seeing  statesmanship, 
and  his  splendid  service  in  the  cause  of  missions  for  half 
a  century,  that  the  criticisms  of  the  special  agent  will  only 
recoil." 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  Washington, 
which  includes  the  Presbytery  of  Alaska  within  its 
bounds,  action  was  taken,  October  5,  1906,  expressive  of 
the  "righteous  indignation  and  disapproval  of  the  un- 
warranted and  unjust  and  untrue  charges  and  criticisms 
made  by  Mr.  Frank  Churchill,  concerning  the  work  and 
character  of  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson  and  our  Presbyterian 
mission  in  Alaska."  Inasmuch  as  these  charges  had  been 
fully  met  and  refuted  by  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
the  Commissioner  of  Education,  no  further  action  was 
taken,  except  to  endorse  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  in 
continuing  the  relation  that  had  hitherto  existed  between 
it  and  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson  and  to  advise  its  con- 
tinuance." ^ 

Thus  by  the  parties  immediately  concerned  every 
charge  of  mismanagement,  favouritism  or  misuse  of  public 
funds,  made  in  Mr.  Churchill's  report,  was  met  and  re- 
futed. 

In  the  report  itself,  which  was  carefully  prepared  and 
contained  much  valuable  information,  the  evidence  of 
prejudice,  hasty  generalization  and  personal  enmity  were 
so  apparent  that  no  action  was  taken  upon  it  by  Congress, 
except  to  order  its  publication,  together  with  the  reply 

'  For  refutation  of  the  charge  that  Dr.  Jackson  received  a  doable 
salary,  see  Chapter  XVI,  p.  362. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  461 

made  to  its  charges  and  adverse  criticisms  by  Dr.  Harris, 
the  Commissioner  of  Education. 

lu  the  hope  of  obtaining  relief  from  acute  and  almost 
continuous  periods  of  suffering,  Dr.  Jackson  submitted  to 
a  surgical  operation  in  the  spring  of  1907.  This  opera- 
tion was  performed  in  the  Hahnemann  hospital,  Phila- 
delphia. Out  of  this  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  he 
came  safely,  but  owing  to  the  lack  of  recuperative  power 
in  his  system,  it  became  necessary  to  undergo  another 
oj)eration  in  Washington,  a  few  months  later.  As  a  re- 
sult of  these  trying  experiences,  his  sufferings  have  been 
greatly  relieved,  but  at  the  expense  of  his  physical  strength 
and  vigour. 

In  his  home  life,  although  often  severed  from  its  enjoy- 
ments and  amenities,  Dr.  Jackson  has  been  greatly 
blessed.  Two  daughters  of  this  little  household  were 
taken  to  the  better  country  in  early  childhood,  and  two 
yet  remain,  whose  presence  and  companionship  are  the 
more  precious  because  of  this  separation  and  bereave- 
ment. 

One  of  them,  Delia  Sheldon  Jackson,  is  a  member  of 
the  Washington  bar  ;  the  other,  Elizabeth  Leslie  Jack- 
son, is  an  artist  of  exceptional  ability  who  has  painted 
many  choice  specimens  of  the  flora  of  Alaska,  as  well  as 
a  large  number  of  highly  prized  water-colour  studies  in 
this  and  other  lands. 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  four  of  the  most  important  events 
in  the  life  of  Sheldon  Jackson  took  place,  by  providential 
ordering,  in  the  month  of  May,  namely  : — 

His  birth,  licensure  to  preach  the  Gospel,  ordination, 
and  marriage.  The  day  of  his  birth.  May  18th,  coming 
in  the  midst  of  the  beauty  and  freshness  of  the  vernal 
season,  happily  synchronizes  with  his  wedding  day.  In 
the  present  year  of  grace, — 1908 — Dr.  and  IMrs.  Jackson 
had  the  rare  privilege  of  celebrating  the  fiftieth  anuiver- 


462  SHELDON  JACKSON 

sary  of  their  wedded  life.  The  "Home"  celebration  of 
this  golden  jubilee  was  attended  by  a  goodly  number  of 
invited  guests,  while  from  many  warm  friends,  both  far 
and  near,  hearty  congratulations  and  good  wishes  were 
sent. 

While  keenly  alert  as  ever  to  the  interests  of  the  great 
missionary  and  educational  work  which  he  has  been  per- 
mitted to  build  from  the  foundation  upwards  for  God  and 
humanity  in  Alaska,  Dr.  Jackson  has  decided  to  give  the 
care  and  responsibilities  of  the  important  office  which  he 
has  filled  for  so  many  years  into  other  hands,  and  has 
tendered  his  resignation  to  the  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, to  take  effect  at  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year,  June  30, 
1908. 

/  The  work  which  he  took  up  when  no  one  else  seemed 
to  be  willing  to  take  it  has  now  become  an  honoured 
service  and  an  object  of  desire.  To  this  work  in  its  two- 
fold manifestations — the  crowning  work  of  his  busy  life — 
he  has  given  thirty-one  years  of  almost  continuous  la- 
bours :  and  there  are  few,  if  any,  influences  for  good  in 
that  far-away  land  that  do  not  owe  their  initiative  or  de- 
velopment to  him.  He  has  ajspealed  to  and  worked  in 
harmony  with  the  Moravian,  Presbyterian,  Baptist, 
Friend,  Methodist,  Congregational,  Episcopal,  Swedish, 
Orthodox  Eussian,  and  Eoman  Catholic  churches  in  the 
establishing  of  schools  and  missions  and  reindeer  sta- 
tions :  and,  in  the  dark  hours  of  his  affliction,  some  of  the 
most  touching  expressions  of  sympathy  and  concern  re- 
ceived by  himself,  or  his  family,  have  been  from  friends 
and  fellow  labourers  in  other  denominations.'  In  every 
habitable  portion  of  this  widely-extended  and  strangely- 

^  In  the  Prayer  Calendar  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Union 
of  Friends,  Dr.  Jackson  was  made  the  subject  of  special  prayer  for 
May,  1907,  "  in  view  of  his  great  work  in  spreading  the  knowledge  of 
the  evangel  in  Alaska." 


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EDUCATIONAL  WORK  4G3 

diversified  land  may  be  seen  to-day  the  monuments  of  liis 
tireless  energy  and  unselfish  devotion.  * 

In  Southeastern  Alaska,  the  field  of  his  first  labours, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  now  has  four  churches  for  the 
white  population  and  twelve  churches  with  982  com- 
municants, and  twenty-five  preaching  stations  among  the 
native  population.  It  maintains  through  the  agency  of 
the  Woman's  Board,  a  well-equipped  industrial  school 
and  a  hospital  at  Sitka,  supjiorts  on  this  field  thirty 
missionaries  and  teachers,  and  influences  for  good  through 
all  these  agencies  some  5, 000  natives. 

Of  this  section  it  was  literally  true,  when  written,  if  not 
of  the  whole  land,  by  one  of  Dr.  Jackson's  associates  and 
faithful  fellow  labourers  : — 

"There  has  not  been,  I  believe,  from  the  first,  a  mission 
started,  a  school  opened,  or  a  teacher  sent,  that  has  not 
been  due  to  the  consecrated  energy  of  this  true  apostle  of 
Alaska,  whose  wise  counsels,  loving  sympathy,  and  sub- 
stantial help  continues  to  bless  them  all."  '  * 

"What  the  missionaries  have  achieved,"  says  Amory 
H.  Bradford,  "fills  the  brightest  page  in  the  history  of 
Alaska.  Others  have  gone  there  for  selfish  purposes; 
they  have  sought  wealth,  and  have  had  as  little  care  for 
the  natives  as  for  the  rocks  or  the  rivers.  The  schools 
are  nearly,  if  not  quite,  missionary  schools  ;  the  hospitals 
are  missionary  hospitals.  Two  names  are  conspicuous  in 
the  story  of  missions  in  Alaska ;  namely,  Sheldon  Jack- 
son and  William  Duncan.  Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken, 
they  will  be  remembered  longer  in  that  land  than  the 
names  of  any  other  men  who  have  ever  lived  there.  The 
schools,  church,  museum,  hospital  at  Sitka,  will  long  keep 
green  the  memory  of  Jackson,  on  whom  the  General  As- 

'Mrs,  Engeue  S.  Willard,  author  of   " Kinda-Shon's  Wife  and  Life 
in  Alaska." 


404  SHELDON  JACKSON 

senibly  conferred  no  added  honour  when  it  made  him  its 
moderator."  ' 

While  Sheldon  Jackson  has  fairly  earned  a  ' '  rest  under 
the  trees"  on  this  side  of  the  river,  it  is  not  at  all  likely 
that  he  will  avail  himself  of  that  x)rivilege  so  long  as  there 
is  work  to  be  done  or  strength  remaining  to  do  it. 

As  for  the  writer  he  will  be  content  with  telling  the 
story  of  his  busy  life  within  the  bounds  of  the  half-century 
already  rounded  out,  preferring  to  lay  his  wreath  of  ap- 
preciation at  his  feet  now,  rather  than  on  his  tomb,  if 
that  were  permitted  him,  hereafter. 

^  "  A  Visit  to  Alaska,"  Outlook,  September  17,  1898,  pp.  184-185. 


XXI 

SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  AND  RESULTS 

(1858-1908) 

"To  think  :  to  act :  to  work  :  to  wait : 
Faith  strong,  heart  true,  whate'er  one'a  fate 
Content,  come  guerdon  soon,  or  late: 
Such  life's  worth  living." 

THE  details  of  the  preceding  chapters,  dating  from 
the  spring  of  1858,  cover  a  fully  rounded  half- 
century  of  widely-extended  labours  and  phe- 
nomenal activities. 

From  the  malarious  regions  of  the  Indian  Territory 
where  for  a  short  time  he  laboured  as  a  foreign  mission- 
ary among  the  Choctaws,  Sheldon  Jackson  found  his  way 
to  a  healthier  field  on  the  frontiers  of  Minnesota  and  Wis- 
consin. Thence  after  a  decade  of  faithful  service,  the 
memory  of  which  is  still  an  inspiration  to  those  who  have 
succeeded,  him  in  that  region,  ho  passes  to  the  frontier 
line  of  Iowa  and  the  rapidly  growing  settlements  of 
Nebraska.  Thence  for  a  dozen  years  or  more  he  ' '  mar- 
shals the  advance  guard  of  the  Church  along  the  slopes 
of  the  Eocky  Mountains"  from  the  north  border  of  Mon- 
tana to  the  north  borders  of  Mexico.  Still  later,  as  one 
has  put  it,  "we  find  him  the  apostle  of  Alaska,  sailing 
away  into  wintry  seas  to  brave  the  forces  of  lawlessness 
in  their  farthest  stronghold,  and  to  save  a  simple  race 
from  extinction." 

In  extent  his  field  of  labour  has  ranged  over  the  broad 
areas  of  nine  states  and  four  territories,  as  now  consti- 

465 


4G6  SHELDON  JACKSON 

tuted,  but  when  lie  crossed  tlie  Mississippi  Eiver  for  the 
first  time,  California  was  the  only  state  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri Eiver.  Over  this  vast  stretch  of  country,  then 
known  as  "  The  New  West," — the  larger  half  of  our  na- 
tional domain, — he  journeyed  from  point  to  point  day  by 
day  and  ofttimes  night  by  night  with  marvellous  patience 
and  persistency,  following  the  farthest  of  the  immigrant 
trails,  to  new  settlements  and  mining  camps,  preaching 
the  gospel  of  peace  where  godlessness  and  anarchy  reigned 
and  establishing  missions  at  every  important  centre  and 
strategic  point. 

Many  of  Dr.  Jackson's  itineraries  were  tours  of  explo- 
ration, and  to  one  unaccustomed  to  the  immense  areas  cov- 
ered by  our  Western  territories,  the  most  of  them  foot  up 
an  aggregate  of  distance  which  seems  to  be  incredible. 

Each  of  his  trips  to  Montana,  while  a  resident  of  Col- 
orado, included  a  round  of  about  1,500  miles.  Southward 
to  Arizona,  the  round  trip  was  fully  2,000  miles.  During 
thirteen  continuous  years  he  travelled  in  the  prosecution 
of  his  work  345, 027  miles,  an  average  each  year  of  26, 540 
miles.  In  1876  he  travelled  by  stage-coach  from  Col- 
orado through  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  a  portion  of 
Southern  California  to  the  Pacific  coast.  In  1877  he 
journeyed  in  the  same  fashion  from  Utah  northward 
through  Idaho  to  Portland,  Oregon. 

While  engaged  in  the  purchase  of  reindeer  for  the  gov- 
ernment, 1890-1900,  he  made  one  trip  to  Petropavlovsk, 
the  capital  of  Kamchatka,  and  thirty-two  trips  to  North- 
eastern Siberia,  eight  of  which  were  north  of  the  Arctic 
Circle.  On  each  of  his  twenty-six  journeys  to  Alaska  he 
travelled  from  17,000  to  20,000  miles,  and  five  times  he 
accompanied  the  officers  of  the  United  States  Eeveuue 
Cutter  Service  to  Point  Barrow,  the  northernmost  settle- 
ment on  the  Western  Continent.  In  one  year,  as  already 
noted,  he   travelled   37,624   miles,   crossing  the  Arctic 


SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  467 

Circle  in  the  summer  on  the  Western  Continent  and  in 
Ihe  winter  following,  the  same  circle — and  going  fur  be- 
yond it — on  the  Eastern  Continent. 

The  aggregate  sum  of  all  his  journey ings  in  the  inter- 
ests of  his  work  during  the  past  half-century  is  but  little 
short  of  one  million  miles  ! 

The  modes  of  travel  on  these  journeys  varied  with  the 
time,  the  circumstances  and  the  habits  of  the  people  in 
the  various  sections  of  the  country.  In  the  early  days  of 
his  ministry  he  travelled  from  point  to  point  horseback 
or  on  foot,  regarding  himself  as  fortunate  if  he  could  get 
an  occasional  lift  on  his  way  in  a  neighbour's  wagon  or 
cutter.  In  later  years,  he  journeyed,  as  he  had  opi)or- 
tuuity,  by  rail  and  stage-coach,  by  buckboard  and  army 
ambulance,  by  lumber  wagon  and  mule  team  and  ox  cart, 
by  broncho  and  reindeer  sledge,  by  freight  and  construc- 
tion train  :  or  on  water  routes  by  steamship  and  dug- 
out, by  launch  and  canoe,  revenue  cutter,  war  vessel, 
schooner  or  cattle-ship. 

"With  wonderful  i^atience,  persistency  and  self-denial  he 
adapted  himself  to  hardships,  ijhysical  discomforts,  the 
tortures  of  close  confinement  in  cramped  i)ositions  in 
stage-coaches  or  on  buckboards,  liemmed  in  with  baggage 
on  every  side  :  or  the  companionship  of  rough,  dissipated 
and  reckless  men.  Some  of  these  trips  were  continuous 
for  five  and  six  days  and  nights  and  one  journey  in  a 
Mexican  ox  cart  lasted  through  ten  wearisome  days — go- 
ing and  returning — of  bumping  and  jolting  over  execrable 
roads  or  dimly  outlined  trails. 

On  these  itineraries  by  land  and  sea,  perils  were  ofttimes 
braved  as  well  as  discomforts  endured.  The  dangers  in- 
cident to  travel  in  new  and  sparsely-settled  countries 
were  every-day  experiences  for  years,  but  to  these  were 
added  many  of  an  extraordinary  or  unusual  kind.  One 
long  summer  day  lie  held  a  rille  on  his  knee  as  the  mule 


468  SHELDON  JACKSON 

teams  which  drew  his  coach  raced  between  stockade  forts, 
at  intervals  on  the  line,  in  momentary  expectation  of  an  at- 
tack from  the  savage  Shoshones,  who  were  known  to  be  on 
the  war-path  in  their  immediate  vicinity.  Once  he  rode 
through  a  region  in  which  hostile  Apaches  were  murder- 
ing scores  of  defenseless  people,  escaping  the  scalping 
knife  by  a  few  hours  only.  A  little  later,  on  the  return 
journey,  he  and  his  wife  narrowly  escaped  death  from  a 
baud  of  infuriated  men  whose  friends  had  been  murdered 
by  the  Apaches.  At  another  time  the  steamer  on  which 
he  was  travelling  was  the  target  for  the  rifles  of  hostile 
Indians  as  it  drew  near  the  shore  on  the  upper  reaches  of 
the  Missouri  Eiver.  Once  there  was  only  the  touch  of  a 
fiuger  between  him  and  death  as  a  dozen  revolvers  were 
pointed  at  him,  and  five  times  the  stage-coach  was  robbed 
by  highwaymen  just  before  or  after  he  had  passed  over 
the  route.  On  one  journey  among  the  high  mountains, 
the  horses  and  the  carriage  in  which  he  was  riding  went 
down  over  a  precipice  by  a  swift  plunge,  several  hun- 
dred feet,  into  the  bed  of  a  stream  ;  while  he  escaped,  not 
an  instant  too  soon,  by  leaping  out,  as  he  realized  the 
impending  danger.  At  other  times  he  was  compelled  to 
flee  from  prairie  fires  which  threatened  to  cut  him  off 
from  places  of  safety  ;  or  from  roaring  flames  which 
leaped  from  pine  to  pine  along  the  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tains. 

There  were  perils  also,  seen  and  unseen,  in  crossing 
snowy  ranges  at  altitudes  varying  from  10,000  to  13,000 
feet ;  perils  in  canoe  voyages  of  hundreds  of  miles  along 
the  stormy  coasts  of  Alaska,  and  perils  of  frequent  occur- 
rence amid  the  grinding  ice-floes  and  treacherous  ice- 
packs of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  where  whaling  vessels  were 
crushed  or  wrecked  every  season.  Three  times  while  on 
these  northward  journeys  the  press  dispatches  reported 
the  death  of  Dr.  Jackson,  and  once  his  obituary  was  writ- 


SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  46b 

teu  aud  published  by  the  enterprising  editor  of  the 
Chicago  Interior. 

The  variety  and  extraordinary  range  of  his  activities 
may  be  summarized  in  part  as  follows  : — 

From  1869  to  1898  he  prepared  and  delivered  be- 
tM'een  3,000  and  4,000  addresses  in  the  interests  of 
his  work.  lu  1872  he  established  and  for  ten  years 
edited  the  Jiocky  Mountain  Fresbyterian  and  at  a 
later  period  established  and  edited  the  North  Star. 
In  1880  he  published  a  valuable  work  on  Alaska  and 
the  missions  on  its  North  Pacific  coast ;  and  later  a 
"Handbook  on  Alaska,"  which  passed  through  several 
editions.  Since  1881,  he  has  made  twenty-one  annual  re- 
ports on  education  in  Alaska,  aud  since  1890  sixteen 
reports  on  the  introduction  of  domestic  reindeer,  both 
being  government  publications.  He  has  also  rendered 
efficient  service  in  the  executive  committee  of  the  Inter- 
national Sunday  School  Association  ;  and  at  one  time  or 
another  has  held  membership  in  forty  or  more  religious, 
philanthropic,  historical,  or  scientific  societies.  In  addi- 
tion to  all  this,  as  a  necessary  feature  of  his  work,  in  its 
manifold  phases  and  necessities,  he  has  conducted  an 
overwhelming  amount  of  corresi)ondence  with  individuals 
and  societies. 

On  many  of  his  long  journeys  and  exploration  tours, 
Dr.  Jackson  secured  specimens  of  rare  minerals,  native 
pottery,  wood  and  bone  carving,  curios,  aud  handiwork 
of  various  kinds,  characteristic  of  the  different  countries 
and  nationalities  within  the  range  of  his  field  of  study 
aud  observ^ation.  The  greater  part  of  these  valuable  col- 
lectious  has  been  given  to  the  Sheldon  Jackson  Museum 
of  Natioual  History  in  Sitka,  Alaska.  Another  collec- 
tion, consisting  of  minerals  and  New  Mexican  pottery,  was 
donated  to  the  museum  of  Princeton  University. 

In  connection  with  his  field  work  Dr.  Jackson  organ- 


470  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ized  the  first  Presbyterian  churches  in  the  territories  of 
Wyoming,  Montana,  Utah,  Arizona  and  Alaska  ;  assisted 
in  organizing  the  Synods  of  St.  Paul,  Colorado,  and 
Washington,  and  the  Presbyteries  of  Chippewa,  South- 
ern Minnesota,  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Montana,  Utah  and 
Alaska,  having  previously  organized  most  of  the  churches 
comprising  them.  He  has  served  also  as  a  commissioner 
to  seven  General  Assemblies ;  as  Moderator  of  the  109th 
Assembly  and  of  the  Synods  of  St.  Paul  and  Colorado  ; 
also  as  Stated  Clerk  of  the  Synod  of  Colorado  and  the 
Presbytery  of  Alaska.  In  1879,  and  again  in  1880,  he 
was  commissioned  by  the  government  to  collect  Indian 
children  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  and  conduct  them 
to  the  schools  at  Hampton  and  Carlisle.  At  later  periods 
he  served  as  special  agent  of  the  War  Department  for  the 
purchase  of  reindeer  in  Lapland,  and  of  the  Agricultural 
Department  in  connection  with  a  tour  of  exploration  up 
the  valley  of  the  Yukon. 

Some  of  the  most  important  features  of  the  field  work 
which  engaged  his  attention  and  drew  heavily  upon  his 
time  were  the  exploration  of  new  and  practically  un- 
known fields ;  preparing  the  ground  in  such  places  for 
occupancy  ;  harmonizing  diverse  elements  and  organiz- 
ing them  into  churches  or  missions ;  securing  for  them 
acceptable  ministers  ;  counselling  with  reference  to  church 
sites  and  plans  ;  securing  donations  of  land  and  funds  for 
the  erection  of  houses  of  worship ;  establishing  schools 
among  the  exceptional  population  ;  strengthening,  en- 
couraging and  supplying  feeble  churches  ;  enlisting  sym- 
pathy and  help  from  outside  sources  for  needy  fields  and 
needy  missionaries  ;  ministering  to  the  sick  and  the  dying 
and,  as  he  had  opportunity,  preaching  the  Gospel  in  des- 
titute and  out-of-the-way  places  to  which  the  missionary 
pastor  had  not  yet  come. 

The  results  of  this  personal  work  are  evident  to-day,  at 


SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  471 

many  points,  within  a  magnificent  and  rapidly  growing 
domain,  which  covers  more  than  one-half  the  area  of  the 
entire  territory  of  the  United  States. 

About  one  hundred  Presbyterian  churches  have  been 
organized  in  this  region  as  the  direct  result  of  his  labour, 
and  there  are  probably  as  many  more  which  owe  their 
origin  and  early  development  to  his  timely  assistance  and 
fostering  care. 

One  who  knew  him  intimately  said  in  a  recent  address 
on  ''Union  College  in  the  Ministry"  : — 

Dr.  Jackson's  restless  activity,  ardent  zeal,  unflagging  energy, 
and  marvellous  executive  talent  did  wonders  for  the  extension 
of  religion  and  the  organization  of  churches  in  the  territories. 
He  was  pioneer,  prospector,  administrator,  all  in  one.  No  man 
was  more  quick  to  see  an  opportunity,  or  more  efficient  to  seize 
it.  .  .  .  There  is  little  of  our  territory,  from  the  Missis- 
sippi River  to  the  Aleutian  Islands,  over  which  he  has  not 
travelled  on  religious  and  humanitarian  errands,  and  the  whole 
broad  expanse  is  dotted  with  monuments  of  his  wisdom  and 
energy.' 

A  striking  exhibition  of  the  progress  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  the  "winning  of  the  West "  is  given  on 
the  face  of  the  map,  prepared  under  Dr.  Jackson's  direc- 
tion and  oversight  (page  92),  which  shows  at  a  glance 
the  line  of  frontier  churches  on  our  Western  border  in 
the  year  in  which  he  entered  upon  his  active  labours. 

In  the  immense  area  west  of  the  Missouri  River  there 
were  at  that  time  but  seven  presbyteries,  thirty-five  min- 
isters, thirty-one  churches,  and  1,019  communicants. 

As  a  result  of  the  prompt,  courageous  and  timely 
work  done  by  such  inspired  and  inspiring  leaders  as 
Timothy  Hill,  Sheldon  Jackson,  George  F.  A\Tiitworth, 
Thomas  Fraser,  Henry  S.  Little  and  their  faithful,  self- 
denying  associates,  there  are  now  on  this  ground  sixty- 
'  The  late  Dr.  Tenuis  S.  Hamlin,  of  Washiugtou  City,  June  27,  1895. 


472  SHELDON  JACKSON 

four  presbyteries,   1,401  ministers,  1,839  churches,  and 
125,000  communicant  members. 

In  the  nine  states  and  three  territories  in  which  Dr. 
Jackson  and  his  pioneer  associates  laboured,  comprising 
Western  Wisconsin,  Southern  Minnesota,  Western  Iowa, 
Nebraska,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Montana,  Southern  Idaho, 
Utah,  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  Alaska,  there  have 
been  organized  six  synods,  thirty-one  presbyteries,  886 
churches,  with  77,105  communcants.  These  churches 
have  received  120,153  members  on  confession  of  faith 
and  their  offerings  for  missionary  and  other  religious 
purposes  have  reached  a  sum  total  of  $20,364,475. 

''This  record,"  says  Charles  Halleck,  a  veteran  editor 
and  well-known  writer,  referring  to  Jackson's  part  in  this 
great  work,  "is  undoubtedly  without  a  parallel  in  the  his- 
tory of  man,  not  only  in  its  religious  and  philanthropic 
aspects,  but  in  the  extent  of  the  itinerary,  the  diversity 
of  labour  and  the  multifarious  services  rendered  on  the 
side  of  one's  fellow  man.  Every  region  which  Sheldon's 
feet  have  pressed  has  been  blessed  and  benefited.  His 
elemosyuary  and  executive  work  in  Alaska  was  abso- 
lutely the  chief  corner-stone  of  its  Christian  civilization 
and  good  order,  as  well  as  the  salvation  of  its  natives, 
body  and  soul,  and  in  more  recent  years  the  helpful  pro- 
moter of  material  comfort  and  commercial  dispatch  (by 
his  reindeer  scheme),  in  the  rigorous  sub- Arctic  winters. 

"But  his  work  for  Alaska  is  only  the  half  of  a  lifelong 
service  for  the  betterment  of  man.  For  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  he  was  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  making  of 
the  'New  West.'  Keeping  pace  with  the  new  settlers 
pouring  into  the  farming  regions,  camping  with  the  pio- 
neers who  laid  out  new  railway  centres,  scaling  the 
mountains  and  penetrating  the  cafions  with  the  pros- 
pectors and  miners,  he  everywhere  rallied  the  friends  of 
order  and  religion,  of  schools  and  temperance,  of  Sabbath 


SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  473 

observance  and  good  citizenship.  While  public  senti- 
ment was  yet  plastic  he  shaped  it  for  weal  and  for  civic 
righteousness,  and  left  his  impress  upon  that  half  of  the 
United  States  which  lies  west  of  the  Mississippi  River."  ' 

It  has  been  said  with  truth  that  few  men  live  to  see 
themselves  appreciated  or  their  work  rewarded  as  has 
Dr.  Jackson.  The  statements  and  statistics  above  given 
are  a  sufficient  proof  of  that  assertion.  He  has  encoun- 
tered persistent  opposition,  endured  the  reproach  of  good 
men,  who  could  not  understand  his  motives  or  enter  into 
his  heroic  conception  of  duty,  and  he  has  been  hounded 
by  evil  men  whose  machinations  he  has  thwarted,  as  few 
men  in  public  life  have  ever  been.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  admitting  freely  such  faults,  mistakes  and  imper- 
fections as  are  common  to  men  in  character  and  work,  he 
has  to  a  very  high  degree  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his 
fellow  labourers,  has  won  the  hearts  of  not  a  few  who 
once  spoke  slightingly  of  him,  and  has  endeared  himself 
to  multitudes,  many  of  whom  have  never  seen  his  face, 
for  his  work's  sake  and  his  persistent  labours  of  love  in 
the  extension  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom.  As  he  drew 
near  the  end  of  his  half-century  of  labour  he  was  made 
the  guest  of  honour  of  the  Presbyterian  Ministerial  Asso-  ■ 
elation  of  Philadelphia ;  of  the  New  York  Presbyterian 
Union  ;  of  the  class  of  1858,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  and  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Albany,  in  which  he  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  min- 
istry fifty  years  ago. 

Among  all  the  kindly  words  of  appreciation  which 
were  sent  to  him  in  the  midst  of  his  work,  the  truest, 
perhaps,  to  the  life,  have  been  the  words  already  quoted, 
of  Frances  E.  Willard  : — a  tribute  as  spontaneous  as  it 
was  hearty  and  sincere — ''You  are  one  of  my  heroes. 

'  Formerly  editor  of  Forest  and  Stream :  author  of  recent  mouograph 
on  Alaska. 


474:  SHELDON  JACKSON 

You  have  stood  for  all  our  Gospel  means,  not  in  a  Insuri- 
ous parish  or  splendid  college,  but  out  yonder  on  the 
edge  of  things  where  God's  most  friendless  children  turn 
towards  you  the  eyes  of  pathos  and  hope." 

For  this  Christlike  ministry,  ''  on  the  edge  of  things," 
Sheldon  Jackson  will  be  remembered  and  honoured  in  all 
the  days  to  come,  as  well  as  in  this  present  time. 

All  honour  to  the  noble  men  and  women  who  seconded 
his  efforts  and  aided  him  in  this  self-denying  work  ;  for 
on  their  support  he  was,  under  God,  dependent  for  suc- 
cess ;  but  to  him  will  be  given,  as  justly  his  due,  the 
honour  of  leadership  in  its  beginnings  over  a  larger  ex- 
tent of  territory  than  was  ever  committed  to  any  mission- 
ary of  the  Cross  since  the  days  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  sure  index  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion is  the  extent  to  which  it  is  pervaded  by  the  in- 
fluence of  Christianity,  the  missionary  of  the  frontier — 
the  man  with  the  Book — deserves  much  more  of  the 
nation  and  the  writers  of  its  history  than  he  has  ever  re- 
ceived. It  is  certain,  also,  that  there  are  many  in  the 
Church  of  to-day  who  have  no  adequate  conception  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  work  which  has  been  done  by  the 
veteran  host,  so  rapidly  passing  away,  who  manned  the 
outposts  on  the  frontier  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  ''keeping  pace  with  the  new  settlers, 
camping  with  the  pioneers,"  roughing  it  with  the 
miners,  enduring  daily  privation,  suffering  and  re- 
proach, that  the  blessed  evangel  might  be  given  to  the 
regions  beyond ;  and  that  the  evil  influences  already  at 
the  front  might  be  supplanted  and  overcome  by  that 
which  was  elevating  in  its  influence  and  saving  in 
its  power  over  heart  and  life,  body  and  soul.  It  was 
given  to  these  men  who  saw  the  vision  of  a  better  day 
afar  to  face  imperial  opportunities  and  meet  unusual  re- 
sponsibilities, which  staggered  the  mind  and  awed  the 


SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  475 

soul.     Yet  witli  strong  faith  and  a  lofty  courage  which 
have  never  been  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  the  Church 
militant,  they  went  forward  battling  for  God  and  right- 
eousness, with  the  brave  motto  on  their  banners  : — "Our 
whole  land  for  Christ  5 "  and  in  the  confident  assurance 
of  victory  in  the  end.     The  history  of  the  advance  of  our 
missionary  vanguards  from  stage  to  stage,  over  frontier 
lines  beset  with  perils  at  every  step,  if  as  fully  written 
out  as  the  history  of  the  other  great  movements  relating 
to  the  "  winning  of  the  West,"  would  be  one  of  the  most 
thrilling  and  romantic  stories  of  modern  times.     And  to 
no  single  denomination,  perhaps,  of  all  those  who  had  a 
part  in  this  moral  conquest  of  the  land,  has  the  Great 
Head  of  the  Church  given  a  nobler,  wiser  and  more  cour- 
ageous band  of  leaders  than  to  the  denomination  to  which 
Sheldon  Jackson  belongs.     A  little  more  than  a  century 
ago  the  blue  pennon  of  our  time-honoured  Church  waved 
'  from  the  summit  of  the  Alleghanies,  while  earnest  men 
peered    anxiously  forward    into   the    almost    unknown 
regions  beyond.     In  the  opening  decade  of  the  century 
following,    it  reached  the  farthest  limit  of  the  "Xew 
West."     It  floats  to-day  over  the  summit  of  the  Sierras 
and  waves  responses  to  embattled  hosts  of  the  army  of  occu- 
pation from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.     A  well-known 
living  preacher  has  said:     "If  the  pulpit  ever  wears 
out,  by  much  preaching,  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews, 
we  can  find  a  new  roll-call  of  heroes  in  the  record  of  home 
missions.    Nor  is  there  any  volume  on  chivalry  or  knight- 
errantry  that  will  surpass  these  wondrous  volumes."     It 
is  one  of  the  hopeful  signs  of  the  times  that  the  home 
mission  studies  of  the  young  people;  of  the  Church  are  to 
be  concentrated  upon  the  lives  of  the  missionary  pioneers 
during  the  coming  year.     Than  this,  no  course  of  studies 
could  be  more  inspiring  nor  is  there  any  other  section  of 
the  history  of  the  Church  so  full  of  stirring  events,  thrill- 


476  SHELDON  JACKSON 

ing  adventures  and  splendid  achievements  as  that  which 
deals  with  these  devoted  men  and  the  great  work  which 
they  were  privileged  to  do.  With  all  that  has  been  done 
in  the  past,  there  still  remains  very  much  land  to  be  pos- 
sessed. 

There  are  moral  wastes  of  vast  extent  within  the  limits 
of  our  presbyteries  and  synods  beyond  the  Mississippi 
yet  to  be  reclaimed.  There  are  entrenched  forces  of  evil, 
such  as  Mormonism,  with  its  debasing  bondage  and  blight- 
ing influence,  paganism  with  its  degrading  forms  of  wor- 
ship, anarchism  and  lawlessness,  superstition  and  igno- 
rance, yet  to  be  met  and  conquered.  Westward  and  north- 
ward, there  are  multitudes  of  our  exceptional  population 
yet  to  be  reached  and  in  the  Southland  a  great  host  in  the 
dark  belts  among  ten  million  of  the  Negro  race — in  some 
respects  the  most  needy  and  the  most  deserving  of  our 
sympathy  and  help  of  all  the  exceptional  people  of  the 
land, — are  yet  to  be  reached  and  evangelized. 

To-day  we  are  facing  a  larger  field  of  labour  than  the 
men  of  the  nineteenth  century  faced, — a  field  into  which 
the  unevangelized  of  every  nation  are  coming, — afield  in- 
cluding every  clime,  as  well  as  the  men  of  every  clime, 
from  Alaska's  icy  mountains  to  the  palm- decked  islands 
of  the  sea.  And  still,  as  in  the  past,  the  magnitude  of 
the  work  exceeds  our  ability  to  overtake  it.  "Oh,  for 
more  Jacksons,"  we  may  well  pray,  to  follow  up  Jackson, 
"  to  build  up  what  he  began,"  and  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  that  which  is  new  in  other  fields  of  labour,  yet  to  be 
opened. 

With  the  passing  of  the  old-time  frontier,  associated  as 
it  has  ever  been  with  heroic  deeds  and  romantic  adven- 
tures, 

"The  old  order  changeth  and  yieldeth  place  to  the  new," 

This  has  ever  been  the  law  of  the  kingdom,  as  well  as 
the  law  of  the  natural  world. 


SUMMARY  OF  LABOURS  477 

New  issues  must  be  met  with  new  meu  and  new  methods, 
but  it  is  also  true  and  a  grandly  encouraging  truth  that 
that  which  has  been  done  for  God  shall  abide  forever- 
more,  bringing  with  it  in  its  time  a  rich  recompense  of 
blessing  in  this  world  as  well  as  in  the  world  to  come. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  of  a  grander  recom- 
pense to  human  efforts  than  that  which  has  already 
followed  as  the  direct  result  of  the  arduous,  self-denying 
work  of  our  missionaries  on  the  frontier.  Their  achieve- 
ments fill  some  of  the  brightest  pages  in  the  annals  of 
the  state,  as  well  as  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  transforma- 
tions which  they  wrought,  through  the  agency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  are  as  marvellous  in  their  time  and  place,  as 
were  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  under  the  same  inspiring 
influence  and  guidance,  nineteen  centuries  ago. 


POSTSCRIPT 

IN  the  preparation  of  this  work  it  was  the  purpose  of 
the  writer  to  tell  the  story  of  Sheldou  Jacksou's 
wonderful  career  of  activity  and  achievement  wilhiu 
the  limits  of  the  half  century  which  followed  his  ordina- 
tion and  appointment  to  missionary  service  on  the  West- 
ern Frontier. 

The  record  of  these  busy  years  closed  with  his  retire- 
ment, in  consequence  of  greatly  impaired  health,  from  all 
his  official  duties  and  responsibilities,  in  the  spring  of  1908. 

It  seems  fitting,  now  that  this  faithful  servant  of  Jesus 

Christ  has  finished  his  course  and  entered  into  the  joy  of 

his  Lord,  that  mention  should  be  made  of  some  of  the  iu- 

■  cidents  which  belong  to  the  few  remaining  days  of  his 

earthly  life. 

After  the  acceptance  of  his  resignation  of  the  office  of 
General  Agent  of  Education  for  Alaska,  which  took  effect 
on  the  30th  day  of  June,  1908,  Dr.  Jackson  gave  his  atten- 
tion to  some  details  of  his  office  work  and  i)rivate  {iffairs 
which  required  his  i)ersonal  attention,  with  a  view  to 
setting  his  house  in  order,  and  in  so  far  as  was  possible  to 
perfect  that  which  was  still  lacking  in  connection  with 
his  great  life-work. 

Busied  with  these  matters  he  remained  in  Washington 
until  midsummer,  when  he  went  with  Mrs.  Jackson  to 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  for  an  outing  of  two  or  three  weeks  by 
the  sea.  Returning  by  way  of  Amsterdam,  N.  Y.,  where 
a  few  days  were  pleasantly  spent  with  relatives  and  friends, 
Mrs.  Jackson  was  prostrated  by  a  serious  illness,  which, 
notwithstanding  every  effort  made  to  arrest  it,  resulted  in 


POSTSCRIPT 

her  death.  Acceptiag  this  sore  trial  of  bereavement  with- 
out murmuring  as  the  ordering  of  the  Heavenly  Father, 
in  whom  he  had  learned  to  trust  so  fully  and  implicitly, 
he  again  took  up  the  burden  of  service  which  seemed  to 
be  appointed  for  him,  in  the  interests  of  the  cause  which 
was  so  close  to  his  heai-t,  and  for  which  he  had  already 
labouied  and  suffered  so  much.  In  the  month  of  October 
he  attended  che  Indian  Oouference  at  Lake  Mohonk,  where 
he  was  al  ways  a  welcome  guest.  He  also  made  addresses 
by  previous  appointment  at  Minaville,  N.  Y.,  at  New 
London,  Lincoln  University,  and  Oxford,  Pennsylvania. 
In  the  last  named  place  he  delivered  an  impressive  and 
long  to  be  remembered  address  at  the  popular  meeting 
held  in  connection  with  the  twenty-sixth  anniversary  of 
the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Synod  of 
Pennsylvania. 

From  Oxford  he  went  to  Carlisle  where  he  spoke  on  the 
same  theme  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church.  Eeturn- 
ing  to  Carlisle  later  in  the  season  with  his  daughters,  he 
spent  i.he  holidays  in  the  home  of  his  brother-in-law,  Dr. 
George  N"orcross.  At  one  of  the  services  which  was  held 
in  the  Second  Church  he  assisted  in  the  baptism  of  eight 
Indian  children.  He  was  privileged  to  take  part  also  in 
the  cehibration  of  the  Fortieth  Anniversary — January  3, 
1909— of  the  pastorate  of  Dr.  Norcross. 

In  February  he  went  to  Asheville,  JSTorth  Carolina,  for  a 
brief  season  of  recreation  and  rest.  After  two  or  three 
weeks'  sojourn  in  this  place  he  went  back  to  Washington. 
On  the  third  day  of  March  he  addressed  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyteiy  of  Baltimore. 
The  meeting  was  held  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  On  his 
return  journey  he  was  exposed  to  the  rigours  of  the  wintry 
storm  whicih  swept  over  that  portion  of  the  country  and 
prevented  the  public  inauguration  of  President  Taft.  The 
result  of  this  exposure  was  a  severe  cold  from  which  he 


POSTSCRIPT 

never  fully  recovered.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  travel 
safely  Dr.  Jackson  returned  to  Asheville.  In  the  genial 
climate  of  this  justly  famed  resort  he  seemed  for  a  time  to 
gaiu  in  strength  and  in  some  respects  his  physical  condi- 
tion was  greatly  improved. 

On  the  14th  of  April  he  delivered  an  address  on  Alaska 
before  the  Presbytery  of  French  Board  and  the  Woman's 
Presbyterial  Society  with  something  of  his  old  time 
earnestness  and  vigour.  This  was  Sheldon  Jackson's  last 
appeal  in  behalf  of  the  Home  Mission  cause,  and  all  who 
were  privileged  to  hear  it  were  strangely  moved  and 
deeply  impressed.  Towards  the  close  of  the  month  of 
April  his  sufferings  from  the  internal  malady,  which  had 
so  long  distressed  him,  became  more  acute  and  it  seemed 
to  be  necessary  for  him  to  submit  to  another  operation. 
This  was  performed  in  the  Merriwether  hospital  at  Ashe- 
ville on  the  27th  of  April  and  from  its  effects  he  never  re- 
covered. 

At  the  early  dawning  of  the  Sabbath,  May  2d,  his  freed 
spirit  passed  from  the  cares  and  strifes  and  sorrows  of  this 
world  to  the  better  country  where  the  inhabitants  never 
say  I  am  sick  and  all  the  weary  ones  find  rest.  "  He 
made  a  brave  effort  to  fight  death,"  says  Dr.  Clarence  G. 
Eeynolds,  pastor  of  the  Asheville  Church,— who  watched 
by  his  bedside  during  his  last  moments, — "  but  as  he  felt 
the  end  was  near  he  quietly  told  his  nurse  not  to  give  him 
further  stimulants.  As  she  protested,  and  said  the  orders 
of  the  doctor  were  to  give  him  his  medicine,  he  replied, 
'  My  orders  are  that  I  am  not  to  take  it.  I  am  going  to 
die.'  Then,  like  a  majestic  liner  passing  beyond  the 
horizon,  he  passed  out  of  this  life." 

Impressive  funeral  services  were  held  in  the  church  at 
Asheville  and  in  the  Church  of  the  Covenant  of  Washing- 
ton City;  and,  at  Minaville,  N.  Y.,  by  the  side  of  his 
faithful  wife,  the  mortal  remains  of  Sheldon  Jackson 


POSTSCRIPT 

■were  laid  to  rest,  on  the  fifty-first  anniversary  of  his  or- 
dination by  the  Presbytery  of  Albany. 

Dr.  Jackson  was  a  commissioner  from  the  Presbytery 
of  Alaska  to  the  General  Assembly,  appointed  to  meet  in 
Denver  on  the  20th  of  May,  1909,  and  for  several  months 
before  his  death  had  been  making  arrangements  for  a  re- 
union of  the  survivors  of  the  pioneer  missionaries,  who 
had  been  associated  with  him  throughout  the  Eocky 
Mountain  section,  in  the  early  days  of  its  settlement  and 
development. 

In  this  Assembly  he  will  be  missed  because  his  seat  will 

be  empty,  but  it  has  seemed  good  to  the  Master  whom  he 

4^       served  to  call  him  to  a  place  in  the  ''  General  Assembly 

and  Church  of  the  First-born,    which  are  written    iu 

heaven." 

Of  him  we  may  now  confidently  say  : — 

**  Servant  of  Christ  well  done 
Praise  be  thy  new  employ 
And  while  eternal  ages  run 
Eest,  in  the  Saviour's  joy. " 

Lincoln  University,  Pa., 
May  7,  1909. 


APPENDIX 


Some    of  those   who  were    associated 
with  Sheldon  Jackson  in  pioneer  work 

Associates  and  Helpers 
[Groufi  I,  facing  page  28.) 

I.  Rev.  Benjamin  H.  Pitman,*  Pastor  of  Presbyterian 
Church,  Esperance,  N.  Y.  He  admitted  to  the  church  on 
confession  of  faith  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Jackson,  and  baptized 
their  children,  Sheldon  and  Louise.  2.  Rev.  J.  Trumbull 
Backus,*  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  forty-one  years  pastor  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  1832-73.  Counsellor  of 
Sheldon  during  his  college  days  and  led  him  to  unite  v^ith  the 
church  of  Esperance.  3.  Rev.  George  F.  Whitworth,*  D.  D., 
pioneer  in  Oregon  and  Washington,  1853-1907.  Assisted  in 
the  organization  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Portland, 
Oregon,  1853,  and  was  the  first  Presbyterian  minister  north  of 
the  Columbia  River,  1854.  4.  Mrs.  E.  T.  Throop  Martin.* 
Collected  the  money  for  the  building  of  the  missionary  vessel 
Morning  Star,  1856;  organized  the  "Woman's  Santa  F6 
Missionary  Society,"  1867;  "The  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and 
Colorado  Missionary  Association,"  1868;  "The  Ladies' 
Union  Mission  Association,"  1879.  5.  Mrs.  James  Lorimer 
Graham,*  President  of  the  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  Colorado 
Missionary  Association,  1868,  and  of  the  "Ladies'  Board  of 
Missions,"  1870;  also  Vice-president  of  "The  ^Voman's 
Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions."  6.  Hon.  James 
Sheakley,  United  States  Commissioner  at  Wrangell,  Alaska, 
1887,  Governor  of  Alaska,  1892-97.  7.  John  Eaton,* 
LL.  D.,  Brevet  Brigadier  General,  United  States  Volunteers 
(Civil  War) ;  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education, 
1870-86.       Literested  in   the   education   of  Alaskan  natives. 

*Deceased. 

479 


480  APPENDIX 

8.  William  T.  Harris,  LL.  D.,  a  distinguished  educator  and 
active  in  the  development  of  schools  and  the  introduction  of 
domesticated  reindeer  into  Alaska.  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education,  1 889-1 906.  9.  Rev.  John  Louis  French. 
Helpful  in  securing  transportation.  10.  Rev.  Robert  William 
Hill,  D.  D.,  Superintendent  of  Missions  in  the  Northwest, 
1878-81,  and  for  Indian  Territory  and  Oklahoma,  1887-95. 
II.  Rev.  Samuel  Ellis  Wishard,  D.  D.,  Superintendent  of 
Presbyterian  Missions,  Kentucky,  1883-87,  and  of  Utah,  1890- 
1907.  12.  Rev.  Thomas  Carter  Kirkwood,  D.  D.,  Superin- 
tendent of  Presbyterian  Missions,  Colorado,  1889-19 — . 


Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries 
( Group  2,  facing  page  85. ) 

Western  Wiscorisiti. — i.  Bradley  Phillips,*  1849-77.  2. 
Wm.  W.  McNair,*  D.  D.,  1849-65.  3.  Stuart  Mitchell,* 
D.  D.,  1855-68.  4.  John  Frothingham,*  D.  D.,  1860-69. 
Minnesota. — 5.  Charles  Thayer,  D.  D.,  1855-89.  6.  John 
C.  Caldwell,*  D.  D.,  1856-90.  7.  Aaron  H.  Kerr,*  D.  D., 
1857-90.  8.  James  Frothingham,  1860-65.  9-  Robert 
Strong,  1861-65.  10.  Wm.  R.  Mercer,*  1861-70.  11. 
George  Ainslie,*  1862-85.  12.  John  L.  Gage,  1862-69. 
13.  A.  J.  Stead,*  1867-1907.  14.  R.  B.  Abbott,  D.  D., 
1869-19 — .  Iowa. — 15.  John  Armstrong,*  D.  D.,  1865-77. 
16.  D.  S.  Tappan,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  1868-99.  Nebraska.— y^. 
J.  T.  Baird,  D.  D.,  1864-19—.  Wyoming.— \^.  Wm.  G.  Kep- 
hart,*  1869-73.  19.  F.  L.  Arnold,*  1870-89.  20.  Wm.  F. 
Hamilton,*  D.  D.,  1871-86. 


Pioneer  Missionaries  in  Colorado 
{Group  J,  facing  page  126.) 

1.  Lewis  Hamilton,*  1859-81.  2.  A.  R.  Day,  1862 — . 
3.  C.  M.  Campbell,  1864.  4.  E.  P.  Wells,  1868-75,  1882- 
87.  5.  W.  Y.  Brown,  D.  D.,  1870-86.  6.  H.  B.  Gage, 
D.  D.,  1870-86.  7.  J.  G.  Lowrie,  D.  D.,  1871-86.  8. 
Robert  Laird  Stewart,  D.  D.,  S.  C.  Presbytery  of  Colorado, 
1873-79.     D.  E.  Finks,  1873-86. 

*I)eceased. 


APPENDIX  481 

Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries 
{Group  4,  facing  page  /pj.) 

Arizona. — i.  Chas.  H.  Cook,  D.  D.,  1870-19 — .  2.  J.  A. 
Merrill,  1876-78.  3.  Wm.  Meyer,  1878-81.  Utah.—^. 
M.  Hughes,*  1869-70.  5.  Josiah  Welch,*  1871-77.  6. 
S.  L.  Gillespie,*  1874-96.  7.  J.  P.  Schell,  1873-74.  8. 
J.  M.  Stevenson,  D.  D.,  1881-19— .  9.  J.  M.  Coyner,*  1875- 
85.  10.  R.  G.  McNiece,  D.  D,,  1877-19 — .  11.  Calvin 
Park,*  1878-86.  12.  G.  W.  Martin,  D.  D.,  1879-19— .  13. 
G.  W.  Leonard,*  1881-85.  i4-  Josiah  McClain,  1885-19—. 
Montana. — 15.  L.  B.  Crittenden,*  1872-92.  16.  Miss 
Mary  G.  Crittenden,*  1872-19 — .  17.  Wm.  C.  Rommell, 
1872-76.  18.  J.  D.  Hewitt,*  D.  D.,  1876-79.  19.  C.  L. 
Richards,  1877-83.     20.    M.  L.  Cook,  1877-82. 

Pioneer  Missionaries 
{Group  5,  facing  page  222.") 

Colorado.— X.  T.  E.  Bliss,  D.  D.,  1871-19— .  2.  J.  F. 
Stewart,  1871-19 — .  3.  Alex.  M.  Darley.  4.  W.  P.  Teits- 
worth,  1873-81.  5.  J.  L,  Merritt,  1874-80.  6.  G.  M, 
Darley,  D.  D.,  1876-19—.  7.  J.  M.  Reid,  Ph.  D.,  1877-19 — 
8.  H.  L.  Janeway,  1878-80.  9.  W.  C.  Beebe,  1878.  New 
Mexico. — 10.  D.  F.  McFarland,*  1866-74.  11.  J.  A. 
Annin,*  1869-80.  12.  J.  Menaul,  1870 — .  13.  J.  M. 
Roberts,*  1872-82.  14.  G.  G.  Smith,  D.  D.,  1874-95. 
15.  W.  W.  Curtis,  D.D.,  1875-76.  16.  H.  K.  Palmer,* 
1877-78.  17.  J.  M.  Shields,  1878-19 — .  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington.— 18.  R.  M.  Hayes,  D.  D.,  1890-19 — .  Nevada, 
Colorado  and  California. — 19.  J.  P.  Egbert,  D.  D.,  1873-76. 
20.    Elder  Charles  E.  Walker.* 

The  Woman's  Executive  Committee  and  Board  of  Home 

Missions 
{Group  6,  facing  page  2^6.) 

I.  Mrs.  A.  Green,*  President,  1878-85.  2.  Mrs.  D.  R. 
James,  President,  1885-19 — .  3.  Mrs.  F.  E.  H.  Haines,* 
Secretary,  1878-86.  4.  Mrs.  M.  E.  Boyd,  Treasurer,  1878- 
90.     5.    Mrs.  D.  E.  Finks,  Secretary,  1886-92,  Editor,  1886- 

♦Deceased. 


482  APPENDIX 

19 — .  6.  Mrs.  C.  E.  "Walker,  Secretary,  1886-89.  7.  Mrs. 
Geo.  Norcross,  Vice-president,  1878-19 — .  8.  Mrs.  Wm. 
Thaw,  1878,  9.  Mrs.  W.  N.  Paxton,  Secretary,  1878.  10. 
Mrs.  S.  F.  Scovel,*  Vice-president,  1878-98.  11.  Mrs.  J. 
McNair  Wright,*  1878.  12.  Mrs.  Kate  P.  Bryan,*  Vice- 
president. 

Board  of  Home  Missions.     Presbyterian  Church 
{Group  7,  facing  page  28 j.) 

I.  T.  L.  Janeway,*  D.  D.,  Secretary,  1862-68.  2.  Henry 
Kendall,*  D.  D.,  Secretary,  1861-92.  3.  Cyrus  Dickson,* 
D.  D.,  Secretary,  1870-81.  4.  Wm.  C.  Roberts,*  D.D., 
LL.  D.,  Secretary,  1881-86,  1892-98.  5.  Wm.  Irvin,  D.  D., 
Secretary,  1887-93.  ^'  ^*  J-  McMillan,  D.  D.,  Secretary, 
1890-98.  7.  C.  L.  Thompson,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Secretary, 
1898-19 — .  8.  O.  D.  Eaton,*  Treasurer,  1874-97.  9. 
G.  L.  Spining,  D.  D.  10.  H.  R.  Wilson,*  D.  D.,  Secretary 
(Church  Erection),  1869-86.  11.  D.  C.  Lyon,*  D.  D., 
Superintendent,  Wisconsin,  1858,  and  Minnesota  and  Dakota, 
1867-85.  12.  J.  W.  Allen,*  D.D.,  Superintendent,  Missouri, 
1873-80.  13.  T.  Hill,*  D.  D.,  Superintendent,  Kansas, 
1868-87.  14-  T.  Eraser,*  D.  D,.  Superintendent,  Pacific 
Coast,  1868-87.  15.  G.  L.  Little,*  D.D.,  Superintendent, 
Nebraska,  1878-83.  16.  H.  S.  Little,*  D.  D.,  Superintendent, 
Texas,  1 879-1 906. 

Pioneer  Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Alaska 
[Group  8,  facing  page  J/J.) 

I.  Mrs.  A.  R.  McFarland,  1877-98.  2.  J.  G.  Brady, 
1878-1906.  3.  S.  H.  Young,  D.  D.,  1878-88,  1897-19—. 
4.  A.  E.  Austin,  1879-98.  5.  E.  S.  Willard,  1881-94.  6. 
Mrs.  Willard,  1881-94.  7.  J.  L.  Gould,  1882-19—.  8. 
J.  F.  McFarland,*  1882-93.  9.  Wm.  A.  Kelly,  1886-19—. 
10.  S.  A.  Saxman,*  1886-87.  11.  L.  F.  Jones,  1892-19 — . 
12.  Miss  Esther  Gibson,  1894-19 — .  13.  V.  C.  Gambell,* 
1894-98.  14.  J.  H.  Condit,  1896-19 — .  15.  H.  R.  Marsh, 
1897-19 — .  16.  S.  R.  Spriggs,  1899-19 — .  17.  E.  O. 
Campbell,  1899-19 — .  18.  J.  W.  Kirk,  1 899-1 906.  19. 
P.  McKay,*  (Clah)  native.  20.  Rev,  Edward  Marsden 
(native). 

*Deceased. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Dr.  R.  B.,  70,  75 

Abbott's     summary     of    Jackson's 

work  in  Minnesota,  70-72 
Ainslee,  Rev.  George,  75,  79 
Alaska,  area,  349;  exceptional 
physical  features,  349-350 ;  neg- 
lected and  almost  unknown  for 
a  decade  after  its  transfer  to 
United  States,  286-288,  313  ;  de- 
plorable condition  of  natives,  287- 
288 ;  providential  opening  for 
mission  work,  287-295,  300-304; 
establishment  of  first  mission, 
302  ;  extension  and  enlargement 
of  work  in  Southeastern  Alaska, 
394,  Chapter  XIV;  efforts  to 
secure  territorial  form  of  govern- 
ment and  public  schools,  303, 
328.  339,  342,  345 ;  Jackson  ap- 
pointed General  Agent  of  Educa- 
tion in  Alaska,  347 ;  establish- 
ment of  schools,  339,  342,  344, 
Chapter  XVI ;  missions  and 
schools  in  Western  Alaska,  369- 
371 ;  in  Northern  Alaska,  Chap- 
ter XVII ;  relation  of  missions 
to  government  schools,  348,  355, 
362,  374 ;  Moravian  missions, 
366-368 ;  cordial  cooperation 
with  all  Christian  denominations, 
364-365,  462 ;  location  of  de- 
nominational missions,  371-372, 
379,  381  ;  introduction  of  rein- 
deer, Chapter  XVIII;  growth 
and  disposition  of  herds,  392- 
397,  409,  412;  some  results  of 
school  and  missionary  work,  344, 

452,  463,  472 
Alaska,    Presbytery   of,    315,    316, 
344,     369 ;     official     sketch      of 
origin  and  growth,  314,  316 


Alexander,  Mrs.  A.  J.,  259 
Allen,  Rev,  John  W.,  14,  154 
Alta,  Utah,  mining  camp,  206,  207 
Andrews,    Mrs.    M.    R.,    letter   of, 

58,78 
Apaches,  233,  248,  250 
Arizona,    Territory   of,    129,    227 ; 
added    to    Synod    of    Colorado, 
129;   establishment  of  missions, 
233,  235  ;  journey  to  collect  chil- 
dren of  Arizona  tribes,  245,  247, 
252;    transfer   of   Indian   tribes 
from    care   of   Dutch    Reformed 
Church  to  Presbyterian  Church, 
245 
Arnold,  Rev.  F.  L.,  174,  176 

Baird,  Rev.  A.  K.,  14 

Barrow,  Point,  364,  376,  380-382, 

383-384,  402,  466 
Bear,  United  States  Revenue  Cut- 
ter, 376-377 ;  cruises   in   Arctic 
waters,  377,  378,  382-383,  390, 
401,  421-422,  440,  453 
Bell,  Rev.  Lancet  G.,  14 
Benton,  Fort,  183-184 
Bering  Sea,  390,  408,  453 
Bolles,  Lieutenant  T.  Dix,  358 
Boyd,  Mrs.  O.  E.,  274,  275 
Brady,    Hon.   John    R.,    306,  319, 

337.  403.  405 
Brainard    Church,    Easton,    timely 

gift  of,  173 
Brigham,  Utah,  213,  214-215 
Brown,  J.  S.,  letter  of,  294 
Brown,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  Y.,  124 

Cache  Valley,  Utah,  215 
Campbell,  Rev.  C.  M.,  126 
Cape   Prince    of  Wales,  364,  378, 
380,  Z?>1,  395 


483 


484 


INDEX 


Cheyenne,  Presbyterian  Church  of, 
III,  112,  1 20,  174 

Cheyenne,  Wyoming,  no,  112 

Church  Erection,  Board  of,  120, 
121 

Churchill  Report,  456-460;  reply 
to  allegations  in,  459-460 

Circle  City,  439,  448 

Clah,  native  evangelist  (Philip  Mc- 
Kay), 292,  303,  306 

Clarence,  Port,  392,  393,  412,  453 

Cleland,  Rev.  T.  H.,  D.  D.,  96, 100, 
106,  434 

Cleveland,  Grover,  Ex-President, 
352,  357.  360,  430 

Colorado,  140,  141,  155;  pioneer 
work  in,  1 25- 1 27,  Chapter 
VIII;  results,  168-169 

Colorado  Presbytery,  125;  original 
bounds,  limited  at  later  date,  127, 
130;  divided,  168-169 

Colorado  Springs,  128,  145;  Pres- 
byterian Church  of,  146,  149 

Colorado  Synod,  122,  123,  Chapter 
VII;  Arizona  added,  129;  area, 
1 30;  altitude,  131 ;  exceptional 
population,  132 

Cook,   Dr.   Charles  H.,  Z47,  253- 

254 
Cook,  Joseph,  344 
Corinne,  116,  aoo 
Coyner,  Prof.  J.  M.,  205 
Crittenden,  Miss  Mary  G.,  185 
Crittenden,  Rev.  Lyman,  185 
Crowl,  Rev.  Dr.  Theodore,  167 

Darley,   Rev.   Alexander    M., 

155.  241 
Darley,    Rev.    George,    156,    159, 

160-163 
Darley,  Mrs.  George,  156,  157-158 
Denver,   in    1870,    141-142;    resi- 
dence of  Sheldon  Jackson,  146; 
churches  of,  123- 124 
Des  Moines,  Presbytery  of,  98 
Dickson,  Dr.  Cyrus,  137,  267 
Dodge,  Fort,  Presbytery  of,  99 
Duncan,    Rev.    William,   288-289, 
372,  463 

Eaton,  General  John,  347,  416 


Eaton  Reindeer  Station,  411,  448 
Edwards,  Rev.  George,  189 
Elliott,  Rev.  J.  C,  100,  no 
Emigration,  periods  of,    14;    after 

Civil  War,  88,  95 
Eskimos,  of  Alaska,  366 ;  missions 

among,  372,  Chapter  XVII 
Exceptional  populations,  132,  257- 

259 

Field,  Dr.  Henry,  149,  364,  369 
Finks,  Mrs.  Delos  E.,  278,  279 
Fletcher,  Alice  C,  435,  436 
Fraser,    Rev.    Thomas,    136,    236, 

267 
Fremont,  General  John,    11,    193, 

246 
Frothingham,  Rev.  James,  44,  68 

Gage,  Rev.  John  L.,  68,  112,  434 
Gallatin  Female  Seminary,  85 
Gam  bell,  St.  Lawrence  Island,  453 
Georgetown,  Colorado,  146 
Gillespie,  Rev.  George,  213-215 
Golden,  Colorado,  146 
Graham,  Mrs.  Julia,  260,  262,  263, 

269 
Grant,  U.  S.,  President,  361 
Gray,  Dr.  William  C,  editor  Inte- 
rior, 309,  310,  426 
Greeley,    colony    of,    146;  Presby- 
terian Church,  146 
Green,  Mrs.  Ashbell,  275,  276 
Grenfell,    Dr.,   of    Labrador,   4 ID, 
4",  413 

Haines,  Alaska,    329,    331,  338, 

355'  447.  448 
Haines,  Mrs.  F.  E.,  276-277,  329 
Hamilton,  Rev.  Lewis,  122,  126 
Hamilton,  William,  assistant  gen- 
eral agent,  373,  414,  457 
Hamlin,  Dr.  Teunis  S.,  414 
Harris,  Hon.  W.  T.,  Commissioner 
of  Education,  375,  379,  395,  456, 
458 
Harrison,   Benjamin    F.,  Ex-Presi- 
dent, 339,  431,  435-436 
Hayes,  Dr.  R.  M.,  425,  433 
Healey,  Captain,   Revenue    Cutter 
Bear,  376,  382,  390 


INDEX 


485 


Helena,  Montana,  Il6,  179,  182 
Henderson,  Mrs.  Alice  P.,  37,  379, 

404,  418,  440 
Herald,  N,  Y.,  sensational  article 

on  Churchill  Report,  458-459 
Herron,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  273 
Hill,  Rev.  Timothy,  14,  136,  267 
Hill-Top  Prayer-meeting,  100 
Hope  Point,  375,  379 
'Howard,  General  O.  O.,  287,  294 
Hughes,  Rev.  M.,  200,  201 

Idaho  Springs,  145 

Idaho  Territory,  298,  299 

lowai    Forward     Movement,    92- 

122,  Chapter  VI 
Iowa,  Synod  of,  89,  96 ;  request  of, 

94 
Iowa,   Western,    missionary    work 
in,  96,  112,  121,  146 

Jackson,  Hon.  Samuel,  17 
Jackson,  Mrs.  Delia  S.,  18 
Jackson,  Delia  Sheldon,  461 
Jackson,  Elizabeth  Leslie,  461 
Jackson,    Louise   (Mrs.    Norcross), 

20,  28 
Jackson,    Mrs.    Mary,    38,   42,  46, 

147,  148,  315 
Jackson,    Samuel    Clinton,    18,  20, 

21-25 
Jackson,  Sheldon,  ancestry,  17-18; 
birthplace,  18,  19;  removal  of 
family  to  Esperance,  19;  dedica- 
tion to  God  and  missionary  serv- 
ice in  baptism,  21 ;  removal  of 
family  to  homestead  farm,  23; 
school  days  and  early  influences, 
25 ;  long  journeys  to  Esperance 
church,  24,  25 ;  preparatory 
schools,  27  ;  Union  College,  27  ; 
public  confession  of  faith,  28; 
soul-winning  in  college  days,  29 ; 
devotion  of  life  to  work  on  for- 
eign field,  29,  35  ;  physical  con- 
dition not  promising  in  youthful 
days,  31,  36;  no  training  in 
athletics  of  modern  type,  29-32 ; 
graduation  from  college,  32 ; 
Princeton  Seminary,  32 ;  col- 
porteur,   vacation   of   1856,   32; 


licensure,  33;  agent  American 
Systematic  Beneficence  Society 
(summer  of  1857),  33,  34;  re- 
vival of  1859  and  its  influences, 
34,  35 ;  commissioned  by  For- 
eign Board  for  work  at  Spencer, 
Indian  Territory,  38 ;  gradu- 
ation, ordination  and  marriage, 
38 ;  journey  to  Spencer,  42-44  ; 
school  and  missionary  work,  44- 
47,  50 ;  serious  illness  from  ma- 
larial fever,  47-48;  resignation 
and  retirement  from  mission,  47, 
50;  commissioned  by  Home 
Board  for  La  Crescent,  Minne- 
sota and  vicinity,  52 ;  extent  of 
missionary  circuit,  54,  55,71,73; 
exposures  and  perils,  57-61,  71, 
72,  80;  agent  United  States 
Christian  Commission,  Army  of 
Cumberland,  65 ;  voluntary  la- 
bours to  supplement  insufficient 
salaries  of  his  associates,  66-68, 
103,  284 ;  Rochester  and  regions 
around.  Chapter  VI ;  Western 
Iowa  and  regions  beyond,  96- 
121  ;  pioneer  work  in  Synod  of 
Colorado  (1869- 188 1),  Chapters 
VI-VII;  editor  of  Rocky 
Mountain  Presbyterian  (1872- 
1882),  12,-^,  335;  missionary 
work  in  Nevada  and  Idaho, 
298;  in  Texas,  285;  voluntary 
work  in  and  for  Alaska,  300- 
325.  337-339;  superintendent  of 
missions  in  Alaska  (1884-1907), 
340-345,  Chapters  XVI-XX ; 
special  work  for  and  among  ex- 
ceptional populations,  leading  to 
organization  of  Woman's  Execu- 
tive Committee,  205,  210,  216, 
223,  228,  231-242,  254,  258; 
prime  mover  in  organization  and 
development  of  Woman's  Board 
of  Home  Missions,  326,  335, 
33^337.  341.  Chapter  XII ;  busi- 
ness manager  Presbyterian  Home 
Alissionary  (1882-1884),  335, 
340 ;  special  government  agent 
to  collect  Indian  children  for 
schools    at    Hampton    and    Car- 


486 


INDEX 


lisle,  243-253 ;  reindeer  project 
and  its  outcome,  Chapter  XVIII, 
458  ;  journeys  to  Siberia  for  pur- 
chase of  reindeer,  466 ;  midwin- 
ter journey  to  Lapland  for  pur- 
chase of  reindeer  under  direction 
of  War  Department,  440-450 ; 
address  at  Carnegie  Hall,  N.  Y., 
429 ;  moderator  of  109th  General 
Assembly,  424-426 ;  honorary  de- 
grees, 151,  451 ;  Klondike  tour 
by  way  of  Yukon  River,  423, 
438 ;  expedition  to  peninsula  of 
Kamchatka,  453 ;  last  cruise  to 
Arctic  Ocean,  457 ;  impaired 
health  necessitating  surgical 
operations,  457,  461  ;  resignation 
and  retirement  from  official 
duties  and  responsibilities,  462; 
celebration  of  golden  wedding, 
461 ;  public  recognition  of  half 
century  of  missionary  service, 
473;  summary  of  labours,  465- 
466,  470 ;  of  missionary  journeys, 
466;  of  hardships  and  perils, 
467-468;  oppositions  and  perse- 
cutions, 356,454,458;  range  of 
activities,  469 ;  direct  and  indi- 
rect results,  47 1;  testimonies 
and  reminiscences  of  associates 
and  contemporaries,  relating  to 
the  man  and  his  work,  27,  28, 
35,  58,  66,  68,  69,  70,  79,  80, 
103,  106,  108,  133,  135,  144, 
150,  154-155.  164,  169,  174,  179, 
186,  208,  212,  215,  236,  249,  252, 
254,  286,  325,  330,  339,  344,  347, 

364,  368,  37i,4ii,4i3.'4i4.  427. 

433.  435.  439,  443,  45^ 
James,  Hon.  Darwin  R.,  339 
James,  Mrs.  Darwin  R.,  276 
Jarvis,  Lieutenant,  390,  401-402 
Jemez,  Pueblo  of,  236,  243 

Kamchatka,  453-454 

Kendall,  Dr.  Henry,  Secretary 
Home  Mission  Board,  137,  153, 
17S,  199,  238,  267,  269,  377-278 

Kephart,  Rev.  William,  126 

Kilgore,  Lieutenant,  456 

Kirkwood,  Dr,  Thomas,  170 


Kjellman,  William   A.,  394,  399, 

438,  441.  443 

Labrador,  introduction  of  reindeer 

into,  410,  413 
La  Crescent,  52,  72 
Ladies'  Board  of  Missions,  N.  Y,, 

262,  268 
Ladies'   Union    Missionary   School, 

Association,  260 
Leadville,  165,  166-167 
Lee,  Dr.  E.  Trumbull,  144 
Lee,  John  D.,  193 
Lindsley,  Dr.  A.  L.,  293,  299,  300, 

314,  317,  321 
Lyon,  Rev.  David,  84 

McFarland,  Rev.  D.  F.,  222 
McFarland,  Mrs.  A.  R.,  300,  305, 

313,  319,  344 
McKinley,      William,      President, 

400,  449 
McMillan,  Dr.  D.  J.,  133,  186,207, 

209-2 I 2 
McMillan,  Dr.  G.  W.,  35,  66,  433 
McNiece,  Dr.  R.  G.,  204,  416 
McNulty,  Rev.  Joseph,  80 

Mallory,  J.  C,  293 
Marsden,  Rev.  Edward,  418-420 
Marsh,  Dr.  H.  R.,  384 
Martin,  Mrs.  E.  Throop,  260 
Menaul,  Rev.  John,  228,  230 
Merrill,  Rev.  J.  A.,  235 
Metlahkatla,  New,  in  Alaska,  372 
Metlahkatla,    story   of,    289,   418; 

visits  to,  321,  324,  343 
Minaville,  N.  Y.,  19 
Minton,  Dr.  H.,  424,  426,  434 
Missionary   outposts   in    1858,    92. 

(See  map) 
Missouri  River,   Presbytery  of,  99, 

loi,  102 
Montana,  Presbytery  of,  130,  182 
Montana,  Synod  of,  189,  191 
Montana,   Territory   of,   177,   192; 

missionary    tours    in,    116,    152, 

179,  185 
Moravian    missions,   Alaska,    366, 

37a 


INDEX 


487 


Mormonism  in  Utah,  194 
Mountain  Meadow  Massacre,  195 
Mount  Pleasant,  Utah,  208-^09 

Nebraska,    missionary   work    in, 

92,  103,  III 
New  Mexico,  Synod  of,  255 
New    Mexico,   Territory   of,    219 ; 

mixed    races,    22o ;    missionary 

tours,   222,   224,  232,   236,  238, 

Chapter  XI 

Ouray  (San  Juan),  158,  159 

Paden,  Dr.  William  M.,  204 
Palmer,  Dr.  Henry  K.,  240 
Parks,  Rev.  Calvin,  216 
Passes,  free,  as  aids  to  missionary 

work,  133-134 
Paul,  Louis,  332,  417 
Paxton,  Mrs.  W.  N.,  273-274 
Pueblo,      Colorado,      Presbyterian 

Church  of,  143-145 
Pueblo  Indians,  230-221 
Pueblo  of  Laguna,   227-230,   236, 

339.  243 
Pueblo  of  Zuni,  236,  240,  243 

Radcliffe,  Dr.  Wallace,  413 

Raven  fund,  66-69,  ^03»  284 

Rawlins,  Wyoming  Territory,  117, 
172 

Reid,  Rev.  John  G.,  169 

Reindeer,  introduction  into  Alaska, 
Chapter  XVIII;  adaptation  to 
arctic  and  sub-arctic  sections, 
391,  398,  406-407,  408;  distri- 
bution and  care  of  herds,  394- 
396.  397,  459 ;  practical  tests  of 
endurance  in  winter  travel,  399- 
408,  409 ;  value  in  rescue  work, 
398,  401,  498 ;  reindeer  mail 
routes,  408,  409 ;  number  im- 
ported from  Siberia,  for  breeding 
purposes,  397  ;  number  at  several 
stations  July  i,  1907,  412 

Reunion  of  Old  and  New  School 
churches,  98,  124 

Rice,  Mrs.  M.  M.,  78 

Rochester,  Minnesota,  744;  Presby- 


terian   Church    of,    74-77,  80; 
Female  Institute  of,  78 


Salt  Lake  City,  192,  197,   199, 
203;    Presbyterian    Church    of, 
203-204 
Salt  Lake  Collegiate  Institute,  205 
Sample,  Dr.  R,  F.,  150,  424,  434 
San  Juan,  mining  camps  of,  156; 
perilous  missionary  visits  to,  158- 
163 
Santa   F6,    128,   221-222;  Presby- 
tery of,  127-128,  130,  223 
Saxman,  native  village  Alaska,  418, 

419 
Schurz,  Hon.  Carl,  243,  320 
Scovel,  Mrs.  S.  F.,  257,  275 
Sheakley,     Ex-Governor,     Alaska, 

456 
Sheldon,  Dr.  Alexander,  18 
Shepherd,  Mrs.  Elliott  F.,  375 
Shields,  Dr.  J.  M.,  243 
Silver  City,  224,  225,  226 
Sioux  City,  100,  183 
Sitka,    315,    329,   344,    353,    355; 
mission   and   schools,    315,  337, 

33«.  341,  342,  343 
Smith,  Rev.  George  G.,  227,  230, 

231 
Smith,  George  Grantham,  178 
Spining,  Dr.  George  L.,  425,  426; 

nominating  address  of,  427 
Stevenson,  Prof.  L.  M.,  381,  382 
St.  Paul,  Synod  of,  84,  85,  87,  91 
Strong,  Rev.  Robert,  69,  79 
Sy nodical  missionaries,  136 
Synodical  Home  Mission  Commit- 
tees (Woman's),  267 


Tappan,  Dr.  D.  S.,  108 
Taylor,  Rev.  T.  F.,  243 
Teller,  Hon.  II.  M.,  339,  391 
Teller  Reindeer  Station,  346 
Tenney,  President  E.  P.,  133 
Thompson,   Dr.  Charles   L.,  Secre- 
tary Home  Mission  Board,  420 
Thompson,  Rev.  Mr.,  248 
Transcontinental  Railway,  93,  102, 
197 


488 


INDEX 


Utah  Presbytery,  130,  217,  218 
Utah    Territory,    192,     193,    194 ; 

Mormon     occupation     of,     192; 

pioneer    work    in,    Chapter    X; 

establishment  of  mission  schools 

in,  205,  210,  216,  218 

Watson,  Mrs.  A.  G.,  79 

Welch,  Rev.  Josiah,  202,  203,  204, 
205 

Wells,  Rev.  E.  P.,  124 

Westminster  College,  Salt  Lake, 
218,  416 

Westward  movements  and  migra- 
tions, 12,  88,  95 

Whitman,  Dr.  Marcus,  14,145,310 

Willard,  Mrs.  Carrie  M.,  329,  330, 

331 
Willard,  Rev.  Eugene  S.,  329,  332 
Willard,  Frances  E.,  435,  473 
Wishard,  Dr.  S.  E.,  199,  202,  205 


Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, 261 

Woman's  Executive  Committee  of 
Home  Missions,  Chapter  XII 

Woman's  Home  Mission  work  in 
early  days,  257 

Woman's  Union  Missionary  School 
Association,  227,  231,260 

Woman's  Union  Missionary  Society 
of  New  York,  259,  261,  262, 
(See  Ladies'  Board  of  Missions, 
268) 

Wright,  Mrs.  J.  McNair,  303-305, 

329,  332 
Wyoming  Territory,   1 70;  pioneer 
work  in,  I02,  III,  112,  113,  130, 
Chapter  IX 

Young,  Brigham,  192,  195,  197, 

199,  201,  209 
Young,  Rev.  S.  Hall,  315,  318,321 


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